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First National Air Institute 

\\ 

UNDER AUSPICES OF THE 

Detroit Aviation Society 

I 

Arranged by Committee 
Represen tin g 

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 

Society of Automotive Engineers 

American Society of Mechanical Engineers 

c Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce 
of America, Inc. 

Participated in by the Foregoing 
and also by Members of 

American Bankers Association 
American Bar Association 
National Aircraft Underwriters Association 


Preliminary to 


THIRD NATIONAL AIRPLANE RACES 

AND 


SECOND NATIONAL AERO CONGRESS 


Board of Commerce Building, Detroit, Mich. 

10 a.m. Wednesday, October 11, 1922 












































Society 

»AY 7 1823 





6 


0^ 




\9 


'^Officers of Organizations 
Arranging 


First National Air Institute 


Detroit Aviation Society, Inc. 

Sidney I). Waldo n, President 

H. W. Alden, Vice-President Wm. E. Metzger, Treasurer 

M ason P. Rumney, Secretary Harold H. E mmons, Counsel 


National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 

Charles D. Walcott, Sc. D., Chairman 
S. W. Stratton, Sc. D., Secretary Joseph S. Ames, Ph. I)., Chairman , 
G. W. I ,ewis, Executive Officer Executive Committee 

J. F. Victory, Assistant Secretary 


Society of Automotive Engineers 

B. B. Bachman, President 

[. V. Whitbeck, First Vice-Pres. H. H. Brautigam, Second Vice- 
F. E. Watts, Second Vice-President President 
V. E. Clark, Second Vice-President C. B. Whittelsey, Treasurer 
O. W. Young, Second Vice-President C. F. Clarkson, Secretary-General 
C. B. Segner, Second Vice-President Manager 

L. C. Hill, Assistant General Manager 


American Society of Mechanical Engineers 

D. S. Kimball, President 

W. H. Wiley, Treasurer Calvin W. Rice, Secretary 


Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America, Inc. 

I. M. Uppercu, President 

C. L. Lawrance, First Vice- C. H. Colvin, Treasurer 

President s. S. Bradley, General Manager 

C . C. W.TMER, Second Vice- Bell, w 

President 

H. L. Mingos, Special Representative. 








Page 


Program 

Temporary Chairman —Sidney D. Waldon, President, 

Detroit Aviation Society. 5 

Permanent Chairman —Prof. Herbert C. Sadler, 
Head, Department of Naval Architecture, Marine 
Engineering and Aeronautics, University of 
Michigan. 7 

The Air Mail —Col. Paul Henderson, Second Assistant 

Postmaster General. 9 

The Importance of Scientific Investigation in a 
General Aeronautical Program —Dr. Joseph S. 
Ames, of Baltimore, Md., Head of Department of 
Science, Johns Hopkins University, and Chairman 
Executive Committee, National Advisory Com¬ 
mittee for Aeronautics. 12 

Commercial Aviation and the Commercial Bank— 
Their Relation to Each other and to Trade— 
Lewis E. Pierson, of New York, Chairman of the 
Board, Irving National Bank, and President Mer¬ 
chants Association of New York. ...... 15 

Flying Boat Transportation —Charles F. Redden, 

of New York, President, Aeromarine Airways, Inc. 17 

Analysis of the Proposed Contract Air Mail 
Route Between Chicago and New York —C. G. 
Peterson, of Paterson, N. }., Assistant to the Pres¬ 
ident, Wright Aeronautical Corp. 20 

Aeronautical Legal Problems —William P. Mac- 
Cracken, Jr., of Chicago, Chairman, Aviation Com¬ 
mittee, American Bar Association. 25 

Commercial Air Transport the Next Step —J. Row¬ 
land Bibbins, of Washington, D. C., Manager, De¬ 
partment of Transportation and Communications, 
United States Chamber of Commerce. ... 33 

The Status of Aircraft Insurance —Edmund Ely, 
of New York, Aetna Life Insurance Company, and 
President, National Aircraft Underwriters Associa¬ 
tion. . 37 

Fundamentals of Commercial Flying—Review of 
Developments in Europe— Prof. E. P. Warner, 
Head, Aeronautics Department, Massachusetts • 
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. . . 40 







INTRODUCTION 


By Sidney D. Waldon, 

President of the Detroit Aviation Society 

Three of the most significant steps in the 
development of American Aviation are being 
taken in Detroit this week, each one distinct 
and separate from the other, yet with unity of 
idea and oneness of principle. 

These events are the National Airplane 
Races, the National Aero Congress and the 
National Air Institute. It is the latter which 
we are now to open. 

The idea of the Air Institute originated with 
a joint committee representing the Aeronauti¬ 
cal Chamber of Commerce, American Society 
of Mechanical Engineers, National Advisory 
Committee for Aeronautics and Society of Au¬ 
tomotive Engineers. On the program being- 
laid before us the Detroit Aviation Society 
was happy to extend an invitation to hold this 
first and tremendously important session of 
the Air Institute in Detroit. 

We are honored further in having as perma¬ 
nent chairman, Prof. Herbert C. Sadler, head 
of the Department of Naval Architecture, Ma¬ 
rine Engineering and Aeronautics, in the Uni¬ 
versity of Michigan. 



Opening Remarks 


By Prof. H. C. Sadler, Head Department of Naval Architecture, Marine En¬ 
gineering and Aeronautics, University of Michigan. 


The present occasion recalls to my mind the first aviation meet held in this 
country. As one of the officials I came into somewhat intimate contact with most 
of the contestants, and it is interesting now to look back at the concern we all 
experienced each day as to whether the weather would be calm enough to enable 
the program to be carried out or not. The principal contestants were the Wright 
Brothers and their associates, Curtiss and Graham White with his little Bleriot 
monoplane and a Farman Biplane; and a few other types which unfortunately 
steadfastly refused to get into their native element but preferred the more humble 
role of the taxi. 

I had the pleasure of meeting that somewhat silent and modest pioneer, Wilbur 
Wright, and in some of our talks as we rode back from the field to Boston, and. 
when, by the way. he was assured that I would not report him, he opened up 

somewhat. I shall never forget a remark he made. Some of the boys at the 

University of Michigan were then building a glider and I gave him an idea of 
what they were doing. After listening most intently he made just one remark, 
“Tell the boys from me not to be afraid to make it heavy enough.” Less than 
two decades ago! At that time the art of flying was largely confined to a few 
enthusiasts, and its principal function a means of supplying a spectacle for gaping 
crowds or a new sensation for a few reckless sports. 

Today we meet to open a series of events and contests almost undreamed of 
at the time of our first aviation meet. But it is not the actual advance in the art 
of flying, or the scientific and engineering skill that has made such things possi¬ 
ble, which today we wish to emphasize, although these are what might be called 
fundamentals; but, rather, that newer and after all, more important aspect of 
the whole question, “the utilization of the air as a medium for commercial trans¬ 
portation.” 

I will not tax your patience with a learned and scientific discussion of the 
properties of the air and the advantages of this as a medium for transport, but I 

would like to draw your attention to one or two salient facts. 

Transportation throughout the ages has been the primary factor in the advance 
of civilization. It has enabled men to communicate or trade with other men and 
so spread knowledge and ideas. It is the keynote today of all commercial enterprise, 
and often the governing factor in the success or failure of almost any business. 

Nature has provided us with three media in which it is possible to transport 
ourselves or our goods: the solid earth, the liquid water, or the gaseous air; and 
in passing, it may be remarked that the last possesses infinitely more possibilities 
than the first two. From the very nature of things man was originally confined to 
the earth and water, because of his unfortunate development as a creature of 
the earth. 

Probably this may have been a wise provision because it has stimulated the 
mind of man, until today, he has in many respects far exceeded the performance 
of those other beings whose development in the early stages of evolution led 
them to adopt the air as their special medium of transportation. 

Throughout the ages also, one other fact stands out with undeniable force, 
and that is, speed. Go back if you will to the road, the river, the sea, and you 
will find in history the inexorable demand for increase in speed. What is the 
use of talking about the “good old days” when people took things more leisurely? 
We can no more go back to the days of the coach or the clipper ship, or cut out 
the use of the telephone, telegraph or radio, than, as the old sage remarked cen¬ 
turies ago, “You cannot turn back the hand on the dial of Ahaz.” 

Anyone who has made even a most elementary study of transportation must 
have realized the fact that on land and sea we have about reached our limits of 
speed. Please do not misunderstand me in this connection. While it may be 

7 




possible to increase speed on land and sea with advance of scientific and engineer¬ 
ing knowledge, there is a practical limit from purely physical and economical 
considerations, beyond which it is not possible to go. 

A railroad train could possibly be run at eighty miles per hour, but in a great 
railroad systernj this would be as a comet from another sphere. It cannot be 
made to work practically. The same applies with equal force to water. While 
our big ocean liners today are much faster than those of twenty years ago, it is 
very doubtful if any further increase in speed is economically sound. In fact, 
the tendency is somewhat in the opposite direction, owing to the unfortunate 
physical laws that compel us to pay an exorbitant tax in power and hence cost 
of operation, for each small increment of speed. 

How then can we meet this demand of the future for increase in speed? We 
have still the one element left in which this is possible, viz., the air. Here again 
nature has been kind in providing a medium where it is possible to obtain speeds 
far in excess of those on land or sea, or even under the sea, with a relatively 
moderate expenditure of power. 

Even granted that from an engineering point of view it would be possible 
to increase the speeds of land and water transportation, say, fifty per cent, what 
is this compared with an increase of one hundred to two hundred per cent of 
even more, in the air, especially when from an economic point of view, the one 
is impossible and the other feasible? 

In conclusion, I would venture to state the facts in a somewhat more forcible 
way; the air is the only medium left to mankind in which it is possible to attain 
materially greater speeds of transportation with the strong probability of com¬ 
mercial success. 


The Air Mail 


Two Million Miles in Safety—Of Every 100 Trips Scheduled, 94.39 
Completed on Scheduled Time—Night Flights Between Chicago 
and Cheyenne to Cut Time from Coast to Coast to 28 to 30 Hours. 


By Col. Paul Henderson, Second Assistant Postmaster-General. 


Any statement that I may make on the subject of aeronautics must of necessity 
be free of any reference to such technical questions as may be involved. I, per* 
sonally, have no technical knowledge of aeronautics. I make this statement in 
starting, in order that I may enlist your patience and indulgence should some of my 
suggestions be lacking in a sound technical foundation. 

I am intensely interested in aeronautics. I believe that I see in the airplane 
a means of transportation which is destined to be equally as important in the future 
life of our country as is the steam locomotive on the one hand, and the motor car 
on the other. 

New ventures of any character need two things. They need enthusiastic 
sponsoring at the hands of intelligent people; they need optimistic, tireless endeavor 
at the hands of those charged with their development. 

The motor car was developed by the optimistic sportsmen of America. Twenty 
years ago, the man who bought an automobile knew before he bought it that it would 
not run except on occasion. He knew before he bought it that he was destined to 
have many discouraging experiences with it. Nevertheless, he cheerfully put up 
his money and purchased the car and enjoyed his discouraging experiences. Air¬ 
planes today are advanced to a point beyond that point in the history of the motor 
car which I describe. 

I do not think that we should consider the airplane as an instrument of travel 
destined to replace either the automobile or the railway train. I think that we 
should view the airplane as offering to civilization an entirely new type of trans¬ 
portation, and one which will, in time, make possible a brand new type of transpor¬ 
tation service which will not take the place of the automobile or the train in any 
sense of the word. 

The First Night Stage Coach 

Speed is relative. A hundred years ago, when it was suggested that the stage 
coaches which carried mail from New York to Boston should be operated at 
night, there was much protest, first as to the necessities of the situation, second as 
to the dangers involved. As a matter of fact, I am told that the first attempt to 
operate at night resulted in a fatal accident. 

The point of view of the Postoffice Department is that the people of the country 
are entitled to, and should be given, full advantage of additional ^peed in the matter 
of handling mail when such advantage is offered, as it is now in the shape of im¬ 
proved airplanes. 

Each of you is probably more or less familiar with the extent to which the 
existing Air Mail Service operates. However, if I may be permitted, I will as 
briefly as possible recite to you the outstanding features of this service as it is now 
organized. 

The Air Mail Service is limited by law to one Transcontinental route from 
New York to San Francisco. This route is 2,680 miles in length, making a round 
trip of 5,360 miles. This round trip is covered each day except Sundays and holi¬ 
days of the year. This necessitates an annual schedule flying on the part of our 
force of approximately 1,800,000 miles. The eastern terminus of our route is 
Mineola, L. I.; the western terminus, Presideo, San Francisco. The intermediate 
landing fields are as follows: Bellefonte, Pa.; Cleveland, Ohio; Bryan, Ohio; 
Maywood, Ill. (Chicago); Iowa City, Iowa; Omaha. Nebr.; North Platte, Nebr.. 
Cheyenne, Wyo.; Rawlins, Wyo.; Rock Springs, Wyo.; Salt Lake City, Utah; 
Flko. Ncv., and Reno, Nev. 


9 





How Mail Is Advanced 

Our service at the present time consists of a relay advance of mail from 
New York across the Continent, and vice versa. That is to say, we do not take 
any particular mail for a complete trip across the Continent. We advance certain 
mail into Cleveland which misses the late night trains out of New York. We take 
from Cleveland into Chicago mail which, if we did not carry it, would go into 
Chicago on a train too late for delivery in the afternoon. This process is repeated 
in relays across the Continent with the net result that we advance approximately 
12,000 pounds of first-class letter-mail each day a matter of some three or four 
hours. It should be noted that this three to four hour advance may in certain 
instances mean a real advance of fifteen to eighteen hours, inasmuch as it may mean 
the delivery of the mail to consignee late in the evening, which might otherwise 
have not been delivered until the following morning. 

The planes which we are now using are remodeled De Haviland planes, which 
we procure free of charge from the Army. As of this date, we have 70 such planes 
in flying condition. Twenty are in the air each day and about 24 are in process 
of being overhauled and rebuilt. Our engineers have found it necessary to make 
some 200 changes in the design of the ship in order to make it suited to the job 
of mail carrying. 

We use Liberty motors, also procured without charge from the Army. 
Our experience has shown us that at the end of 100 hours flying service it is 
necessary to overhaul each Liberty motor. This we do at an average cost of about 
$250 per motor. At the end of 300 or 400 hours flying service we overhaul the 
ships themselves. The major portion of this overhauling and rebuilding is done in 
our shops at Chicago, which shops are rather complete and employ approximately 
100 . 

2,000,000 Miles in Safety 

From July 16, 1921, until Septemer 7, 1922, we flew approximately 2,000,000 
miles without a fatal accident. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1922, we 
maintained an efficiency of 94.39 per cent. This means that out of every 100 
trips scheduled, 94.39 were finished on schedule time. Our records show that two- 
thirds of our trips were made in clear weather; one-third were made in foggy, cloudy 
or stormy weather. 

On September 16th we finished 10 consecutive weeks of flying the entire Trans¬ 
continental route with 100 per cent efficiency; that is to say, during those weeks 
each of our scheduled trips was started and finished exactly on schedule time. It 
should be remembered that our daily route includes the crossing of three mountain 
ranges, the Allegheny Mountains, the Rockies and the Sierras. 

There are employed in the Air Mail Service 390 people, of whom 39 are pi¬ 
lots. With three or four exceptions, our pilots are all ex-Army or Navy flyers. 
They are exceptionally high-grade young men and to them is due much credit for 
the success of the Air Mail Service. 

It is obvious that in order to get from the airplane all that it may offer in the 
shape of postal service it will be necessary to fly at night. With this thought in 
mind, we have for the past four months conducted an intensive series of experi¬ 
ments and study on this subject. Our experiments and study have reached the stage 
where it is, I think, safe to conclude that it is entirely possible to fly at night. 
We expect within a few weeks to light, as an experiment, our Chicago field, and 
I am ^personally optimistic enough to predict that within six or eight months we will 
be able to fly from Chicago to Cheyenne at night. 

Coast to Coast in 28 Hours 

If we are successful in this it will mean that we will be able to make a 
Transcontinental flight from New York to San Francisco in one continuous move¬ 
ment, flying from New York to Chicago in the day time, Chicago to Cheyenne at 
night, and from Cheyenne to Frisco during the early part of the second day. We 
should be able to establish and maintain a schedule of from 28 to 30 hours between 
New York and San Francisco if this night flying experiment proves out. 

10 


Our plan for night flying includes an emergency landing field every 25 miles, 
with the proper field lights, and with a beacon light visible for a distance in excess of 
25 miles. 

We are proceeding slowly in this matter of night flying in order that we may 
assure our pilots of the protection to which they are entitled before we ask them 
to undertake night work. 

It is my personal opinion that within two or three years the Air Mail Service 
will have developed to a point where it will undoubtedly be thought wise to turn 
over the service to private contractors and make it nation wide in its scope, with 
higher postage than is now charged on ordinary letters. 

The position of the Post Office Department in the matter of the Air Mail 
Service is that such information as we are able to develop, and such experiments 
as we are able to follow through to a* conclusion, are for the benefit of the country 
at large, and if in our work we are able to add our share toward the prompt advance¬ 
ment of aeronautics, I, for one, feel that we have done our duty. 


11 


The Importance of Scientific Investigation in 
General Aeronautical Program 


a 


Imagination of People As a Whole Must Be Stirred to Make Them 
Realize the Importance of Aviation to Them as Individuals—All 
Progress in the Art Depends Upon the Acquirement of New 
Knowledge. 


By Dr. Joseph S. Ames, Director, Physical Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Univ- 
versity, Baltimore, Md., and Chairman, Executive Committee, 

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. 


Before anything can be said on this subject it is essential that we should 
agree as to what is meant by scientific investigation or scientific research. 

First of all, I do not mean the study of costs of manufacture or production 
by a skilled man, however scientific his training is for the purpose. I do not 
mean the work done by an efficiency expert or by an economic expert. I do 
not mean the processes by which an engineer improves the operation of an 
engine or applies a new material to an old purpose. I prefer to limit the use 
of the words to their original meaning as established in university laboratories 
for physics, chemistry, zoology, etc. 

By a scentific research is meant the investigation by trained scientific men, 
in a properly equipped laboratory, of the fundamental phenomena of nature. 
The study of why an airplane wing has lift, of how the lifting force is distrib¬ 
uted over the wing, of how this distribution is affected by changing the shape 
of the wing, are all scientific researches. They could not be effected except 
by trained scientists working under the same conditions as in a physical lab¬ 
oratory. 

Modern airplane construction today rests upon the classical experiments of 
Langley, Maxim, the Wright brothers, and Eiffel. The marvelous achieve¬ 
ments during the late war would have been impossible without the experimen¬ 
tal work done at the National Physical Laboratory of Great Britain and at the 
Gottingen Aerodynamic Laboratory. The underlying reason why so little 
progress has been made in design since the war is that there has been so little 
added to our knowledge of aerodynamics in recent years, owing to the lack 
of financial support given work of this kind, not simply in this country but 
in all the countries of Europe. 

Must Acquire New Knowledge 

In considering any program for the development of aviation, the first 
point to emphasize is the need of stirring the imagination of the people as a 
whole to make them realize the importance of aviation to them as individuals, 
the second point is to make the men already interested in aviation appreciate 
that all progress depends upon the acquirement of knowledge, of new knowl¬ 
edge. This last can be obtained only by long continued investigations, directed 
by men who know the problems and the methods to be used for their solution. 

The experimental work in this country in aerodynamics is placed by 
Congress in the charge of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 
a committee of twelve, consisting of officers of the Army and Navy, men at 
the head of various Government scientific agencies and professional men from 
civil life. They have organized various technical subcommittees, on Aerody¬ 
namics, Power Plants, and Materials. Each of these consists of the leading 
engineers and constructors in the country. Programs of work are arranged 
and work in progress is discussed by these subcommittees at their monthly 
meetings. The main Committee has at Langley Field, Virginia, two labora¬ 
tories, one for aerodynamics and one for power plants; here also is its flying 
station, where experiments upon actual airplanes in flight are performed. For 
the support of this all-important work less than $100,000 is available from the 


12 






appropriation made by Congress. If $500,000 were available each year, it would 
not be too much. As it is, the amount of knowledge gained in the course of 
a year is not great. Everyone who is able to picture the future needs of air¬ 
planes must see that this underlying study of fundamental principles must be 
hastened. 

Views of Army and Navy 

As General Patrick has said, in a letter to the Bureau of the Budget: 

“Aeronautics is progressing rapidly and greater technical knowl¬ 
edge is necessary if we are to keep pace with developments abroad. 
Engineering experimentation conducted by the Army and Navy, and 
based upon existing knowledge, will contribute measurably to the 
general development of aviation, but, in my judgment, well directed 
scientific research, as conducted by the National Advisory Committee 
for Aeronautics, is essential to substantial progress. The Army Air 
Service depends upon the Advisory Committee for the study and solu¬ 
tion of the more difficult problems.” 

And Admiral Moffett, in writing to the same body, says: 

“Scientific research in aeronautics is essential to the continued 
development of aircraft for naval purposes. The Naval Bureau of 
Aeronautics relies upon the National Advisory Committee for Aero¬ 
nautics to conduct the necessary investigations on fundamental prob¬ 
lems, and to furnish original information and data not otherwise 
obtainable. 

“The increased importance of aircraft in naval warfare is recog¬ 
nized by the General Board of the Navy, and plans for the greater 
development of naval aviation have been approved. Unless the National 
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics has the requisite funds and facil¬ 
ities for providing fundamental information, it will not be possible to 
keep abreast of the development of naval aviation in other countries.” 

It is not too much to say that all the manufacturers of airplanes in 
America wait from month to month for the information which only the reports 
from the National Advisory Committee’s laboratories can give. 

Researches at Langley Field 

I shall take three illustrations only of recent researches at Langley Field, 
so as to make clear the bearing of such work upon the practical side of the 
matter: 

Every designer and constructor of airplanes must know not simply 
the total force which the wings and each part of the airplane structure 
may be subjected to in steady flight and in maneuvers, but also how 
this force is distributed—where is the greatest load, how does it vary 
in amount and position in a loop or in a dive. etc. In the same connec¬ 
tion, it must be known how this distribution of force is affected by 
changing the shapes of the various parts: Should, for a particular 
purpose, the wings be square-cornered or elliptical, or should they have 
a rake-off, etc.? All these questions and practically all others that 
can be asked about similar matters can now be answered as the result 
of the Committee’s investigations. Furthermore, the Committee is now 
prepared to make a complete study of similar problems concerning air¬ 
ships. Until this knowledge is available, the construction of airships 
must be guided by purely empirical considerations. 

Again, when an airplane is completed and ready for its acceptance 
tests, the rnethod in use today, in this country and also in Europe, is 
to have the machine flown by one or more test pilots. They make a 
report concerning their impressions; does it respond easily to controls, 
does it feel stable, etc. These are simply reports of men’s reactions, 
and may or may not have relation to facts. Furthermore, any pilot’s 
impression is in reality a mental comparison between the machine 
he is operating and one he is accustomed to and may like. Such a 


13 


comparison is not designed to be favorable to new models or to new 
devices. The Committee has constructed an instrument which records 
photographically the motion of each of the controls of an airplane and 
also simultaneously the effect of such motion. The linear and angular 
velocities and accelerations are obtained from these records, and every 
question concerning the controlability, maneuverability, and stability 
of the airplane may now be answered definitely. We have advanced 
from psychological impressions and guesses to records and facts. 

Lastly, when a new design of airplane or of an airplane part is 
made, it is customary to construct a model of it, one-twentieth the 
size or less, and to experiment upon this. The method now in universal 
use is to suspend th& model from suitable balances in a stream of air 
drawn through a large tube at a velocity of sixty miles an hour or more. 

The balances register the forces and moments acting on the model. 
From the results of such measurements one decides whether the original 
design is good or not. But is one justified in making such a decision? 
Why should the same laws apply to a little model inside the wind tun¬ 
nel, as it is called, and to the actual airplane flying freely through the 
air? Evidently there is ground for grave uncertainty. The Committee 
has perfected a method for obviating this. It has been known from 
aerodynamic theory for some time that the change in scale, from the 
airplane to its model, could be compensated by compressing the air 
from ordinary pressure to twenty or twenty-five atmospheres; as the 
structure moving through the air is reduced in size from fifty feet 
to two feet, the molecules of the air are brought, by compression, 
closer and closer together until their distance apart is one twenty-fifth 
of what it was originally. The effect of change in scale is thus fully 
compensated, and experiments upon a model in this compressed-air 
have a real meaning. The Committee has constructed a large steel 
tank, 34 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, inside which is placed a wind 
tunnel with its balances, etc., and in which the air may be kept in a 
state of high compression. The information to be obtained from the 
apparatus will be the most important ever given airplane designers. 

These three illustrations should serve to prove that, without such experi¬ 
mentation, progress in aviation is impossible, and that, therefore, the liberal 
support of aerodynamic laboratories should be urged most strongly in any 
aviation program. 


14 


Commercial Aviation and the Commercial Bank— 
Their Relation to Each Other and to Trade 

Commercial Banks Need Aviation More Than Aviation Needs Them 
—Air Transport Will Make Very Great Contribution to Com¬ 
merce—Character, Capacity, Capital Necessary to Success. 


By Lewis E. Pierson, Chairman of the Board, Irving National Bank, New York, 
and President, Merchants Association, New York City 


Air transportation is one of the incompletely developed facilities of modern 
commerce while the commercial bank is merely one facility that may perhaps be 
considered to have completed long since its development stage. 

Perhaps the average man in business today, through a process of association 
falls unconsciously into the error of considering commercial banks as sources of 
wealth rather than as merely instrumentalities which have come into existence 
because of the need of certain financial facilities involved in the concentration, safe¬ 
guarding, and transfer of other people’s money. 

If one clearly apprehends the function of a modern bank one cannot fail to see 
that it comes into being only as a result of industry and commerce and is not the 
forerunner of those two manifestations of modern economic life. Hence, we arrive 
at the rather surprising conclusion that commercial banks need aviation more than 
aviation needs them. This does not imply the present readiness of commercial 
banks to finance the development of air transportation—it simply means that 
banks will benefit in direct ratio to the contribution which aviation will make 
to commerce. That this contribution will be very great no one seriously doubts, 
and, therefore, the up-to-date banker must give serious thought to the part which 
he must play now and in the future in assisting to bring about the realization 
of the plans of those who are today laying the foundations of America’s aerial 
commerce. 

To Hasten Co-ordination and Co-operation 

I believe that bankers can be helpful and I am also sure that the most certain 
method of assuring a close co-operation is by clearing away all misunderstandings 
that may exist—the misunderstanding of the banker regarding the capabilities of 
air transportation as well as the misunderstanding of those in aviation regarding 
the true role of the commercial bank. 

I shall leave to other speakers well versed in the new science the duty of 
clearing up the very foggy ideas of bankers regarding the technique of air transpor¬ 
tation as a fact in modern commerce. My obligation in this matter as I see it 
is to set before you the ensemble of aviation in its present stage of development 
as a commercial banker sees it, to point out its weak spots, and then to consider 
with you ways and means of hastening the day when the bank facility and the air 
transport facility of modern commerce will function co-ordinately as instrumen¬ 
talities of commerce with mutual benefit to each other. 

You desire, and expect, a certain amount of conservation in your banker— 
you do not expect to find him losing his sense of proportion when the enthusiastic 
conceptions of the budding aviation engineer, are laid before him. However much 
you may desire to see the ardent young spirit of aviation carry itself in real and 
imaginary flights of incredible swiftness to the uttermost parts of the world, you 
certainly desire to have your banker keep both feet on the ground. His conserv¬ 
atism may be a means of defense for you against your own enthusiasm. 

But let us define conservatism before we proceed. A definition which appeals 
to me as a guide is the following: 

Conservatism is caution without timidity; a respect for experience without 
a feeling that nothing good remains to be discovered; a demand that proof be 
submitted, accompanied by a hope that proof can be submitted. 

15 






It is not incompatible with this brand of conservatism that the banker in look¬ 
ing at the aviation ensemble today should revert to the time-honored credit factors 
as the basis of his criterion—character, capacity, capital. 

Character First Essential. 

A corporation, an industry, has not a soul but it certainly has a character. 
What are the intangibles that give character to aviation today? Are they not a 
blend of courage and daring, tenacity and hope, ambition and vision? All these 
are the characteristics of the pioneer. But just as the pioneer settler in a desert 
country could never achieve the success of his brother who, though possessing no 
greater qualities, settled in fertile and well watered lands, so the aviation industry, 
however superb its character, cannot achieve success without a right start. 

I feel that it is proper that the right start should be given by a certain 
measure of Federal Government control. This will first of all take the form of 
licensing of pilots and aircraft; then Federal, State and Municipal governmental 
co-operation in establishment of airways; and later we may work out an acceptable 
scheme of Government subsidies for operating companies. Given this foundation 
the next essential is public confidence—that means not only a willingness to use 
aircraft for passenger and freight transport but willingness to contribute capital. 
You will come then to your banker with a business character that has the stamp 
of Government and public approval. 

Now as to the capacity in general of the management of the aviation industry. 
We have no standard of success in the operation of air lines on which to base 
an estimate of your capacity, for the very simple reason that so far as is known 
no air transportation companies can yet show an operating profit. The great thing 
to be accomplished, then, is the demonstration of a capacity to earn dividends. 
Familiar as I am with the splendid personnel of the industry I lack no confidence 
in the ultimate “submission of proof” on this point. The progress along these 
lines cannot be unattended with most of the ills characterizing a period of de¬ 
flation. Aviation is suffering from a heavy load of overhead and excessive operat¬ 
ing costs inherited from the war. The pruning knife of economy must be wielded 
ruthlessly if management is to have half a chance to demonstrate its inherent 
efficiency. 

How the Banker Can Help 

How can Bankers and the general public help you to build on your three C’s 
of credit? Bearing in mind your dual role as a factor in national defense and 
national commerce, they should use their influence to obtain for you a proper measure 
of Governmental assistance; realizing the vital need for maintaining a high morale 
in aviation they should decry the continuation of flying circuses and country fair 
exhibitions which lower the public esteem for the industry as a whole; studying 1 
your progress with conservative but open minds Bankers should prepare them¬ 
selves to advise their clients who may consider contributing capital for your 
proper enterprises, and finally, when you have established yourself as a “going con¬ 
cern,” when you have become like a commercial bank an instrumentality of com¬ 
merce, undoubtedly bankers will be prepared to finance your current needs and to 
use your facilities for the better accomplishment of their own functions in the 
economic life of the nation. 


16 


Flying Boat Transportation 


Advantages of Air Transportation Over Water as Compared with 
That Over Land—Safety Record of Aeromarine—One Million 
Miles and 15,000 Passengers Without Mishap. 


By Charles F. Redden, President, Aeromarine Airways, Inc., New York, and 
Governor of Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America. 


The traveler freshly returned from Europe, who has been besieged by agents 
for commercial air transportation companies, who has been staring at highly artistic 
posters extolling the advantages of this or that line, and who finally points with 
pride to a number of airline labels on his suitcase—is apt to raise his eyes and 
look in vain for the vast fleets of airplanes which his imagination and patriotism 
have perhaps led him to expect. Seeing none, he forthwith rushes into print to the 
effect that we are back numbers, that we do not know how to do things, and that 
every other nation is way ahead of us. Wherein he is ably seconded and abetted 
by not a few of our native writers. 

The answer is that these critics are looking in the wrong direction. There is 
going on in the United States a very notable development in airline transportation. 
And, though slow and not at all spectacular, this development on the whole rests 
upon a firmer foundation and is more self-reliant than most of the much advertised 
European undertakings. I refer to the development of flying boat transportation. 

The primary reason therefor is historical. For all of Europe—England in¬ 
cluded—the aerial aspect of the war was an overland proposition, purely and 
simply. It was a matter of fast observation flying along the various fronts, of 
skilled combat, of bombing raids over comparatively short distances. Peace found 
Europe filled with well equipped aviation fields near all the important centers, a 
vast amount of technical knowledge and a large number of machines that could 
easily, however mistakenly, be converted into commercial carriers. Moreover, the 
populations of every country had become used to airplanes and ceased to regard 
them as a questionable novelty. 

The Situation in Europe 

Small wonder then, that as soon as political circumstances permitted, airlines 
began to operate all over the continent—in many cases without sufficient financial or 
technical foundation to insure success, or operating over such short distances as to 
preclude real competition with existing means of transportation. The further his¬ 
tory of many of these undertakings is familiar; their equipment had soon to be 
replaced by machines better adapted to commercial work; heavy subsidies became 
necessary and were readily enough granted by paternally inclined governments 
with an eye to military supremacy. In short, the European airlines are largely 
dependent upon peculiar local conditions upon which they will have to rely at 
least until economic and political adjustments take place. 

To us, on the other hand, the war was chiefly a matter of seagoing trans¬ 
portation. It was our problem to keep the water lanes open, to convoy ships, to 
cruise for raiders and submarines. Our meeds were different from Europe's. And 
so we developed a supremacy of our own in our particular field. 

We may grant that in matters of technical refinement the European land planes 
are perhaps superior to our own, but who can gainsay the fact that no country 
surpasses or even approaches us in the reliability, comfort and seaworthiness of 
our flying boats. 

And I believe that it is through the seaplane and over-water travel that the 
foundations of American aerial transportation are to be laid. 

We must go about the business of learning to operate air-lines, in this country, 
just as we had to learn how to run railroads, or to supply a network of highways 
for our motor cars. We cannot afford to rush headlong into a new undertaking to 


17 





find out later whether we come out on top or not, as we did under stress of neces¬ 
sity with steamship exploitation. Capital is naturally cautious. It has to be shown 
where the dividends are to come from, and is unwilling to expend itself in the 
establishment of a huge organization without preliminary investigation and devel¬ 
opment, such as is now taking place. For it should not be believed that the main¬ 
tenance of an overland airline is merely a matter of ships and motors and terminal 
fields. It means a highly trained and efficient organization and a vast expenditure 
for preliminary and permanent ground work. It means the maintaining and super¬ 
vision of a large number of emergency fields, of signals, of huge buildings; finally 
it means the running of a small scale city transportation line to bring the passengers 
and the freight to the distant terminals. All this costs money, and plenty of it. 
And note that no bona fide line can afford to start without all this preparation under 
penalty of suffering some heavy accident at the very outset and thereby losing 
public confidence. 

Possibilities of Flying Boat 

On the other hand, consider the flying boat. Look at a map and think of the 
possibilities offered by our eleven thousand miles of coatline, including the Great 
Lakes, and our enormous inland river development. All our large cities, from 
Portland to Galveston, from Seattle to San Diego and from Buffalo to New Or¬ 
leans are located upon it. And in nearly every case a flying boat can land almost 
at the very heart of the business district without a cent of expenditure for real 
estate. Seaplane landing fields are literally unlimited, both in number and extent. 
The business man, or the tourist, or the case of goods can be landed right at the 
foot of “main street,” and what is highly important, the fact of the line’s exis¬ 
tence is thereby constantly held before the eye of the public. The flying boat 
becomes, not a vague object far up in the sky that one looks at casually and for¬ 
gets, but something tangible, something that one sees departing and arriving at 
stated times, and that is worth going down to see, much as “train time” draws 
forth a crowd at any small town railway depot. 

This last aspect is very essential. It is conceded that the American public must 
be “sold” on the idea of air transportation. And it is an axiom that in order to 
“sell” any product to the public that product must be brought to their attention, 
constantly and by actual demonstrations. To the average man in the street an 
airplane is yet a frail, insecure thing—however mistaken that impression may be, he 
has it. Aviajtion fields are distant from town and not much frequented except by 
enthusiasts. The seaplane on the other hand reminds one of a boat; its very lines, 
the luxurious equipment and roominess of the cabin, inspire a feeling of safety 
and comfort. Moreover it can be inspected at any time—for it lies moored down 
the street at the waterfront. 

The Problem of Safety 

The problem of safety will always remain a bugbear to the overland air 
transit company. Even railroads and motor cars have to stop now and then .while 
on their way. And the problem of the occasional forced landing is a serious one. 
High altitudes have to be maintained to clear cities and mountains, and it is often 
a difficult matter to run properly into terminal fields. Our flying boats, on the 
other hand, often cover hundreds of miles barely eight or ten feet over the water, 
which favorably impresses the passenger, and results by the way, in a very de¬ 
cided economy of fuel. 

Air pockets, suddenly ascending or descending currents, which are so unpleasant 
in land flying, are all but unknown to the seaplane passenger. It is our boast that 
sea-sickness is almost unheard of on our boats. This stability is partly due to 
the size and staunch construction of the equipment, and the smoothness of travel 
exceeds that of a Pullman car. 

Proof by Performance 

We have concentrated upon establishing a record for safety and reliability in 
our present operations. It is only by an actual show of promise performed that 
the tide of public opinion can be overcome, and be made to work with you. In 
the two months between July 17th and September 17th, 1,8.39 passengers were carried 


18 


between Cleveland and Detroit, which involved 222 crossings of Lake Erie, not 
to speak of 52 additional charter and sightseeing trips. Over one ton of freight 
was also carried including a dismantled Ford car. The sightseeing service down 
New York bay is proving so popular that within eight days in September 101 trips 
were made, the majority on Saturday and Sunday. 

During the past three years we have flown oVer 1,000,000 passenger miles; car¬ 
ried over 15,000 passengers and without a single mishap. 

Our experience has proven to our satisfaction that the country is ready for 
seaplane transportation, and that the business is here, plenty of it, and that it is 
worth the effort of going after it. 


Analysis of the Proposed Contract Air Mail Route 
Between Chicago and New York 

Equipment Necessary for Overland Air Line—Time Saved by Air 
as Against Mail Trains—Bringing the Mississippi Valley and 
the Atlantic Seaboard Closer by One Business Day. 


By C. G. Peterson, Assistant to the President, Wright Aeronautical Corp., 

Paterson, N. J. 


Let us divide aviation into two classes, military and commercial. These dis¬ 
tinctions overlap in many types of planes, but the broad classification of commercial 
aviation is aviation that is not for military or naval purposes. We can then sub¬ 
divide commercial aviation into three general headings: Planes owned and operated 
by private individuals for sporting purposes and for travel; planes owned by 
companies for sight-seeing and industrial work including mapping, photography, 
or forestry patrol, and planes owned and operated by companies for transportation 
purposes including the transportation of passengers, express matter or mail. 

I will endeavor to point out why it is our belief that the large volume of 
commercial aviation will fall into the last class of transportation, that is mail, 
and show why mail-carrying will be the first step in establishing successful and 
dependable transportation lines. 

The field for individual ownership will be more or less restricted for several 
reasons. The expense of operating a plane in addition to its first cost, the diffi¬ 
culty for an individual of obtaining adequate landing facilities, and the compara¬ 
tively short life and low resale value of present day planes. It is appreciated 
when one leaves the crowded eastern seaboard that landing fields become more 
numerous particularly between the Mississippi and the Rockies. It is also appre¬ 
ciated that already some prominent yachtsmen have bought new planes and have 
operated them during the past summer for their own convenience and pleasure. 
Nevertheless, it is hard to visualize an extensive use of planes by individual 
owners. 

The next classification of commercial aviation is the operation of planes by 
companies for various industries. This field is broadening out constantly. Map 
making from airplanes has proved exceedingly successful. A number of large 
contracts for map making have been placed by municipalities, railroads, and real 
estate corporations. I know of one company in Canada which has been able to 
afford several modern high price post-war planes with post-war engines for map¬ 
ping purposes. This classification should also include companies which carry 
passengers for sight-seeing and the class of flying known as “beach hopping” or 
“joyriding.” This whole classification will increase gradually in some phases and 
decline in other phases as the supply of war built planes which can be purchased 
at a low price decreases. But commercial aviation falling in this category is not 
what Americans are looking forward to as the large field for commercial aviation. 

The Big Field in Air Transport 

Transportation of passengers, express, and mail is where most Americans look 
for the broad field for commercial aeronautics. Carrying passengers, perhaps, comes 
first to the minds of all who think of transportation by air. There are several 
serious difficulties to be overcome before the transportation of passengers can be 
made successful. These difficulties in passenger carrying may be briefly sum¬ 
marized in the high rates which must be paid by the passengers, the difficulty of 
obtaining proper landing fields near the center of population of the larger cities, 
the educational work needed in inducing the public at large to make use of the 
inter-city lines even if such are established, the high risk of liability on passengers, 
and the difficulty in finding routes which can be operated properly throughout the 
entire year. Splendid examples of pioneer work on passenger transportation have 
been shown in the Cleveland-Detroit line, the Key West Havana line, and lines 
operated from Florida to Bermuda. But it will be noted that most of these lines 


20 





have been operated over selected water routes and for one season of the year 
only. It has been found abroad practically impossible to operate passenger lines 
without a government subsidy. American aviators do not desire a subsidy, nor, 
as I will point out, is a subsidy necessary for successful commercial aviation in 
the United States. The express business, undoubtedly, will eventually make use 
of transportation by air just as soon as such aerial transportation lines are in 
successful operation. But it cannot be expected that the express companies 
can finance such lines or give definite guarantees of the quantity of express 
matter that will be shipped, and without such guarantees a line cannot be 
initiated. 

The Benefits to Be Derived 

Now, let us look at the benefits to be derived by carrying mail by air, the 
cost, and how this cost will be spread thinly over millions of business men and 
women of the country. Very few of us realize the quantity of mail that passes 
daily between the large cities. There are approximately 25 tons of first class 
mail sent daily from New York to Chicago. This includes the gateway mail 
at each end and considerable other mail matter, in addition to letters. There 
are on an average of 160,000 letters a day collected in New York City for 
delivery in Chicago City. This quantity does not include gateway mail at 
either end. The quantity of gateway mail is several times this amount. There are 
approximately 325,000 letters a day sent from Chicago to New York for delivery 
in New York City. The figures given are for letters and first-class mail and do 
not include other classes of mail of which there is a tremendous volume. 

The entire business community is awake to the necessity of time saving. 
When some new method of handling correspondence comes out that will 
accelerate the mail one or two hours it will be grasped immediately by the 
business world. Think what the response will be when it is possible to save 
an entire business day on business correspondence; when manufacturers and 
merchants will obtain orders from their salesmen a day earlier; when bankers 
will be able to save a day’s interest in the transportation of their securities; 
when documents, specifications or samples can be received a thousand miles 
away the day after they were mailed. Every class of modern industry will 
feel the advantage of this saving of a business day. 

It must be remembered when one figures on carrying mail by air that 
the length of the route must be sufficient to offset the loss of time in transit 
from the Post Office to the flying field at both ends of the route. Also that 
the heavy mail is collected at the close of the business day and that there 
is little advantage in considering carrying mail by air between the cities 
situated so closely together that mail leaving by train at, say after 8 o’clock 
in the evening, will arrive at its destination for early distribution the next 
morning. We must therefore look to long distance routes in order to take 
full advantage of the time saved. 

New York-Chicago Route 

Last spring I made up a chart for the use of the Congressional Committee 
on the Post Office and Post Roads. This chart shows the time the four principal 
mail trains leave New York for Chicago and the time a paralleling flight by 
a plane could be made, and the saving in time thereof. 

A summary of this chart is as follows (In plotting this chart allowance 
has been made for the change of standard time and the average velocity of 
the wind which is from the west) : 

WESTBOUND 

Train No 43, the newspaper train, with three 60 foot R. P. O. cars and 5 storage cars, leaves 
New York at 2:10 a. m., arrives in Chicago 24 hours afterward, and its mail is delivered in 
Chicago at 9 a. m. of the second day, over 31 hours after 1 it leaves New York. 

Flight No. 1 will leave New York at 2 a. m., arriving in Chicago at noon for delivery down¬ 
town by 2 p. m., saving one business day on 42,000 letters. 

Train No 19 with one 60 foot R. P. O. car and one storage car, leaves New York at 5:31 p. m„ 
arriving in Chicago the next afternoon at 4 p. M., too late for delivery that afternoon and the 
mail is delivered in Chicago 9 o’clock the following morning, 40^ hours after it leaves New \ ork. 

21 


Flight No. 3 will take the mail from train No. 19 at Erie, flying it to Chicago, to arrive at 
noon for distribution by 2 o'clock that afternoon, saving one business day on 42,000 letters. 

Train No. 35 is a very heavy letter train, leaving New York at 8:40 p. m., with one 60 foot 
R. P. O. car and 5 l /> storage cars, arriving in Chicago at 8 o'clock the next evening. Its mail 
lays over until the next morning and is delivered 35 hours after leaving New 1 York. 

Flight No. 5 will leave New York at 8 p. m., arriving in Chicago at 6 a. m., for the first deliv¬ 
ery in the morning, advancing 42,000 letters one business day. 

Flight No. 7 is an additional plane leaving New York at the same time but carrying mail for 
West of Chicago. Flight No. 7 arrives in Chicago at 6 a. m. By using additional planes out of 
Chicago connecting with flight No. 7, the mail can be flown to arrive in St. Louis at 10 a. m., 
to be delivered by noon—to arrive in St. Paul at 11 a. m., to be delivered by 2 p. m. —and to 
arrive as far West as Kansas City by noon, to be delivered by 2 p. m., saving one business day 
on 42,000 letters. 

Train No. 93 leaves New York at 9:26 a. m., carrying one 60 foot R. P. O. car as far as Cleve¬ 
land, where it arrives at 4:35 the next morning for delivery approximately 24 hours after it 
leaves New York. 

Flight No. 9 leaves New York at 6 a. m., arriving in Cleveland at noon for delivery by 2 p. M., 
saving one business day on 42,000 letters. 

EASTBOUND 

Train No. 32, with one R. P. O. car and four storage cars, leaves Chicago at 1:50 a. m., arriv¬ 
ing in New York 26 hours later, and its mail is delivered at 9 a. m. of the second day, over 
30 hours after it leaves Chicago. 

Flight No. 2 will fly from Chicago at 3 a. m., arriving in New York at noon with 42,000 letters 
to be delivered downtown by 2 p. m., saving one business day on 42,000 letters. 

Train No. 22, with one R. P. O. car, leaves Chicago at 5:30 p. M., arriving in New York at 
5:25 p. m., too late for delivery and its mail is delivered 9 a. m. of the second day, over 38 
hours after it leaves Chicago. 

Flight No. 4 will fly from Erie at 6 a. m., with the New York mail taken from train No. 22 
which passes through Erie at 5:15 and Flight No. 2 will arrive at New York at 10 a. m., to 
be delivered downtown by noon, saving one business day on 42,000 letters. 

Flight No. 6 will fly from Chicago at 12 o’clock midnight with the mail for Buffalo, Rochester, 
Syracuse, which has missed train No. 22 at 5:30 p. m. Flight No. 6 will arrive at Erie at 4:30 
A. m., transferring its mail to train No. 22, which arrives in Syracuse at 10:45 a. m. for delivery 
at noon, saving one business day on 42,000 letters. 

Train No. 28, with three R. P. O. cars carrying the heavy letter mail, leaves Chicago at 11:15 
p. M., arriving in New York at 7:15 a. m. of the second day, distributing its mail over 32 hours 
after it leaves Chicago. 

Flight No. 8 flies from Chicago at 11 p. m., arriving in New York at 8 a. m. the next morning 
for distribution 10 hours after leaving Chicago, saving one business day on 42,000 letters. 
Flight No. 10 is to forward mail flown from cities west of Chicago. This mail could be flown 
by air, leaving Kansas City at 6:30 p. m., leaving St. Paul, Minneapolis at 7:00 p. m., leaving 
St. Louis at 8:00 p. m., leaving Chicago at 11:00 p. m., arriving in New York at 8:00 a. m. the 
next morning, with HA,OOU letters advanced one business uay. 

Fly By Night Throughout Year 

Now, as to how it will be possible to have dependable service for night 
flying. We believe that the following plan, carefully worked out in detail, will 
make night flying throughout the year possible. We have prepared cost 
estimates of this proposed plan and the cost is not as high as one might imagine. 
On a route from New York to Chicago the contractor must be able to get 
from the government a contract for a reasonable period of time such as the 
four year period now given on mail star routes. This four year contract period 
will enable the contractor to lease and prepare suitable landing facilities at the 
terminal cities and the divisional points, and to provide adequate planes and 
aids to navigation. 

The distance by air is approximately 780 miles. The route would be 
divided into three divisions, and the mail changed to a fresh plane fully ser¬ 
viced with a fresh pilot at each divisional point. The division fields would be 
equipped with storage hangars and work shops. Between the divisional points 
emergency landing fields would be leased by the contractor and maintained in 
a usable condition for emergencies. These would be from 15 to 25 miles 
apart or within possible gliding distance if a 5,000 foot altitude was main¬ 
tained. 

A series of powerful Beacon lights would be established along the entire 
route including exceedingly large lights at the terminal fields and somewhat 
smaller, but still very powerful Beacon lights, at each of the emergency 
landing fields. All of the fields would be illuminated by a series of flood lights 

22 


or indicator lights which would show the pilot where to make a landing, the 
direction and velocity of the wind, and the limits of the field. It would not 
be necessary for these lights to burn steadily all night long, several methods of 
switching them on and off automatically or semi-automhticalJy, having been 
considered. With this system of illumination it will be possible for a pilot 
under average weather conditions to always be able to steer his course visually 
by following the Beacon lights. 

In Constant Radio Communication 

It is realized that in fog and under stormy weather conditions the range 
of visibility will be greatly decreased. For this reason we have figured on the 
contractor installing in each plane a radio telephone receiving set and a radio 
telegraph sending set. We have figured on establishing a radio compass station 
at each terminal and division field and at one field midway between the division 
points, in other words, about every 125 miles. The telegraph sending set in 
the plane would be fitted with an automatic sender which would send out the 
code number of the plane at regular intervals of say every 3 minutes. The 
compass stations between which the plane was flying would receive these auto¬ 
matic signals and keep tally of the location and course of the plane. If the 
pilot found or believed he was off the course he would move his automatic 
sender to ask the compass station for the proper bearing to get back on his 
course. He would receive their reply by telephone. This system of using an 
automatic telegraph sender and receiving by telephone will enable the pilot to 
get the full use of his radio gear without distracting his attention from piloting 
his ship. 

We have figured on the contractor using new modern planes which will 
carry at least 1,000 pounds of mail, with a cruising speed of 100 miles per hour, 
and a high speed of 20 to 25 miles faster. We estimate that the cost of operat¬ 
ing this service, based on a four years’ contract, flying four planes Eastbound 
and four planes Westbound daily will be approximately $1,863,000 per year. 
The four Eastbound planes will expedite 210,000 letters a day, and the four 
Westbound planes another 210,000 letters a day, or saving a business day on 
420,000 letters a day. Flying on 310 business days a year would mean 130,- 
000,000 letters per year, and the cost would be less than 1*4 cents per letter. 
This works out that the total cost per mile flown is about $1.00, which is at 
the rate of one mill per mile per pound. 

Basic Figures of Contract 

Now the figures that I have given above indicate what can be reasonably 
expected in the future. But it must be remembered that in organizing as long 
a route as this^, it will be inexpedient for either the contractor or the Post 
Office Department to undertake a contract of such magnitude as four planes 
each way daily. We have therefore prepared alternative figures on flying one 
plane each day each way. In making up this estimate we have left in all the 
costs of all the aids to navigation given in the larger estimate, including 
emergency landing fields, Beacon lights, and radio compass stations, so that 
the costs given will cover day and night flying. We estimate that flying one 
plane each way each day between New York and Chicago will cost approxi¬ 
mately $800,000 a year based on a four year contract. With a 1,000 pound 
load, the $800,000 yearly cost, plus 5%, gives a rate of IV\ mills per mile per 
pound or 4*4 cents per mile per cubic foot of cockpit mail space in a plane. 
On this basis of one round trip per day approximately 25,000,000 letters would 
be expedited yearly from New York right through to Chicago, and the cost 
per letter, $800,000 divided by 25,000,000 letters, would be a little over 3 cents 
per letter, that is if all the mail is through mail. If the flight is arranged so 
that way mail can be carried either between intermediate cities or advancing 
part of the mail from trains which had already carried it some of the distance, 
approximately 50,000,000 letters per year could be expedited, and the cost 
would be only about 1 6/10 cents per letter. 

These figures show that for less than $1,000,000 a year approximately 50,- 
000,000 letters could be accelerated one business day. The yearly deficit of 

23 


the Fost Office Department is considerably over $100,000,000, thus, for less than 
1% of the yearly cost of the Post Office Department it is possible to save a whole 
business day on 50,000,000 letters. Surely the advantage to the business community 
in such an acceleration is worthwhile. 

Passenger Traffic Natural Growth 

We have based our figures on a route from New York to Chicago, be¬ 
lieving that such a route should be the first one to be established, and further 
believing when such a line is established and successfully operated for a suffi¬ 
cient period of time to demonstrate its feasibility that extensions will be 
rapidly made and additional trunk lines established. These trunk lines once 
established and successfully operated will prove such a boon to the commercial 
communities of the cities, both at the terminals and along the route, that after 
they have been in operation for a fair period the communities would never allow 
them to be discontinued. The service will grow and gradually expand to carry¬ 
ing express matter. Then, from time to time, when the general public realizes 
the punctuality and reliability of the service they will seek the expansion of the 
line for passenger traffic. But this passenger traffic will be a natural growth 
for those whose time is so valuable that they can afford the additional cost of 
aerial transportation, and the sales expense in obtaining such passengers will 
be a reasonable percentage of the gross receiots. 

To bring this matter to a head we must look to Congress to pass legisla¬ 
tion authorizing the Postmaster General to let contracts with private contrac¬ 
tors for carrying the mail by air, allowing a contract period of not less than 
four years and at rates which will enable the contractor to put in and main¬ 
tain the aids to navigation he will require for safe and punctual night or day 
flying. These rates must be adequate for him to buy the best of flying mate¬ 
rial. Rates should not be less than 2 mills per mile per pound or the equivalent 
space rate of 5 cents per mile per cubic foot of mail compartment in a plane. 
There are bills now before the Post Office Committee in the House which will 
be entirely suitable if modified as above in the matter of rates and methods 
of payment. It would not be necessary for the Government to make any gift, 
grant, or bonus to the contractor but only to insure him a fair return for the 
service to be performed, remembering that the routes must be operated through 
the entire year, operated punctually and dependably. 

After the main trunk line for an air mail route from New York to Chicago 
is well established, branch lines would be put in. A feeder line to Detroit serv¬ 
ing Detroit and adjacent cities would probably be one of the first branch lines 
established. Feeder lines would also be established from the main route to 
Boston and New England, to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and 
from Chicago to St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis and St. Paul. 
Thus it will be possible for the manufacturers of Detroit to have their mail 
posted as usual at 5 p. m. or after, but delivered early the next day in the 
larger cities from New England to the Missouri, and the cost will not be 
excessive.” 





24 




Aeronautical Legal Problems. 


What Are an Aviator’s Rights?—What Are His Liabilities?—What 
Regulation Is Desirable?—Why Uniformity Is Indispensable— 
Federal Law Urged. 


By William P. MacCracken, Jr., of Chicago, Chairman, Aviation Committee, 

American Bar Association. 


There are three legal questions which the business man about to invest in an 
aeronautical enterprise wants to have answered: 

First: What are an aeronaut’s rights? 

Second: What are an aeronaut’s liabilities? 

Third : What governmental agencies have power to regulate aeronautics, and 
to what extent? 

Other questions may be raised but if definite, satisfactory answers could be 
given to these three questions, a serious impediment to the advancement of com¬ 
mercial aeronautics in this country would be removed. 

These questions are so interrelated that they will not be considered separately. 
“What are an aeronaut’s rights?” may, in turn, be divided so as to present several 
different rights, such as his right to compensation for passengers and freight car¬ 
ried. or for services performed; his right to recover for injuries attributable to 
the negligence of another aeronaut, or the negligence of the manufacturer of his 
aircraft, but the question which is of primary importance involves his right to 
fly through space over property of another, and it is this particular right which 
presents the most serious legal problem. 

Those who challenge an aeronaut’s right to fly over another’s property rely 
upon the common law maxim, Cujus cst solum ejus est usque ad coelum, which 
freely translated means that the owner of the soil owns to the sky. 

It was handed down from the Roman law. A literal application of this maxim 
would prove a most 1 serious handicap to commercial aeronautics. So far, it has not 
been passed upon by any court of last resort in this country in a case involving 
flight by aircraft, though it has been quoted in cases involving overhanging branches, 
overhanging eaves, telephone and telegraph wires, and thrusting one’s arm over 
another’s land. All of these acts appear to have been done at a height low enough 
to interfere with the land’s use by its owner. As far back as 1815, Lord Ellen- 
borough, in the case of Pickering v. Rudd, 4 Camp. (Eng.) 219, said: 

“Nay, if this board overhanging the plaintiff’s garden be a trespass, 

it would follow that an aeronaut is liable to an action of trespass quire 

clausum fregit at the suit of the occupier of every field over which his 

balloon passes in the course of his voyage.” 

In contending for a right or easement of flight, as it is sometimes called, it 
may as well be conceded that this right would have to be exercised so as not to 
interfere with the land’s use by its owner. 

Law Should Be Adjusted 

One of the theories of our common law is that it should adjust itself to 
changing conditions. At the time this maxim was inherited from the Roman law, 
travel bv air not only was unheard of, but it was undreamed of, except in the myth¬ 
ology of the Greeks. 

It is inconceivable that a court of last resort in this country would blindly fol¬ 
low this maxim, without applying a test as to its reasonableness. 

In determining whether or not this maxim should be modified- or construed 
so as to permit flying over another’s property without the owner’s consent, the 
question should first be approached from the point of view of the property owner. His 
land would not be damaged by permitting aircraft to fly over it any more than it 
is damaged by permitting automobiles to pass in front of it along the public high- 

25 





way, nor would the owner’s use of the land be affected, if the right of passage of 
aircraft was limited to a height sufficient not to interfere with the owner’s use of his 
property. 

Considered from the standpoint of public convenience and necessity no argu¬ 
ment is needed in support of a modification of this theory of property rights in 
air space. Our common law has always recognized as paramount the public’s right 
to travel, and when a highway is obstructed the traveling public may go upon 
private property in order to avoid the obstruction and to continue upon their 
journey. Certainly if public necessity will excuse an act which does not interfere 
with an owner’s use of his property and may cause actual pecuniary loss, it would 
seem reasonable that the public’s interest in air travel would warrant a limitation of 
this maxim which would permit an aeronaut to fly over another's land without 
being regarded as a trespasser. 

Right to Fly Over Another’s Land 

Public opinion would seem to support this contention when one considers that 
doring the years 1920 and 1921 aircraft traveled approximately 12,000,000 miles 
in the United States without any single property owner presenting a claim for aerial 
trespass. This year in the State of Pennsylvania a complaint charging aerial tres¬ 
pass was filed against the “Windy” Smith Flyers before a Justice of the Peace. It 
conceded on the trial that the defendants had flown over the complainant’s land 
at a height of 300 feet; they were fined in the Justice’s Court but on appeal this 
judgment was reversed. From the judgment of reversal an appeal has been taken 
which is still pending. 

Another reason for recognizing the right to fly over another’s land is the dif¬ 
ficulty of determining an aircraft’s course through the air. While this reason, 
standing alone, would not be controlling and should not be considered if there 
was any real injnry to the land owner, the fact that in the vast majority of cases 
the exact course of the aircraft could not be determined with any degree of cer¬ 
tainty, should add weight to the arguments in favor of the right of flight over 
private property. 

Several of the writers on this subject have suggested various methods by 
which this right of flight could be acquired in the event the courts should hold 
that it did not exist at common law. Judge Lamb, former solicitor for the Depart¬ 
ment of Commerce, has suggested a statutory condemnation by Act of Congress 
of all the air space over privately owned property, giving the owners a right of 
action against the United States for any actual damage they might be able to 
prove. As it would be impossible to prove actual damages, the net result would 
be that the right would be acquired without expense to the government. Major 
Johnson, legal advisor to the Chief of Air Service U. S. A., has suggested that 
the right be acquired by a federal constitutional amendment. 

The conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in their draft of 
the Uniform State Aviation Act adopted at San Francisco August 7th, 1922, make 
the following declarations: 

“Section 3 (Ownership of Space. The ownership of the space above 
the lands and waters of this state is declared to be vested in the several 
owners of the surface beneath subject to the right of flight described in 
Section 4. 

Section 4 (Lawfulness of Flight). Flight in aircraft over the lands 
and waters of this state is lawful unless at such a low altitude as to inter¬ 
fere with the existing use to which the land or water or the space over the 
land or water is put by the owner, or unless so conducted as to be immi¬ 
nently dangerous to persons or property lawfully on the land or water 
beneath.” 

This declaration when enacted by state legislatures cannot be held to create 
any right which did not exist as common law but merely to state what the legis¬ 
lators believe to be the common law, because if the ownership of the surface car¬ 
ries with it the exclusive right to the use of all of the space above it, the legisla¬ 
tive grant of a right of flight through this space would constitute a taking of 
property without due process of law. 


26 


It would therefore seem as though the maxim Cujus est solum est usque ad 
coelum should be so interpreted as to permit a passage through space over pri¬ 
vately owned land at a height and in a manner which will not interfere with the 
use to which the land is put by the owner. 

Aviator’s Liability for Damage 

* 

There are mainy more phases to the question of an aeronaut’s liabilities than 
there are to the question of his rights. First of all, there is his liability for dam¬ 
age to property and injury to persons upon the ground. Next, there is his liability 
to his passengers, or to the owner of the goods transported by him. There is also 
his liability to his employes, and finally, his liability to other aeronauts. 

Considerable has been written upon the subject of liability for damage to per¬ 
sons and property upon the ground. Some authors have expressed the opinion that 
the ordinary rules of negligence should govern, in which cas_e it would be incumbent 
upon the person injured to prove that the injury suffered was caused by the negli¬ 
gent act of the aeronaut. In defense, the aeronaut, in addition to rebutting the prima 
facie case of negligence could rely upon contributory negligence or the doctrine of 
vis majo'\ Other writers have advocated the application of the maxim res ipsa 
loquitur which relieves the plaintiff from proving negligence but permits the de¬ 
fense of contributory negligence, vis major, or the negligence of an independent 
third party. Still others have advocated the principle of absolute liability for all 
damages, the same as applied to one who keeps a wild beast upon his premises. The 
only case on this subject is that of Guille v. Swan, 19 Johns (N. Y.) 381, decided 
in 1822, in which a balloonist was held liable for damage caused by the fall of a 
balloon on the plaintiff’s land and also for damage caused by a crowd which was 
attracted onto the plaintiff’s land by the defendant’s fall. The reasoning of the 
court in the Guille case makes that case applicable only to free Balloons. Chief 
Justice Spencer said: 

“I will not say that ascending in a balloon is an unlawful act, for it 
is not so; but it is certain that the aeronaut has no control over its motion 
horizontally; he is at the spirit of the winds and is to descend when and 
how he can; his reaching the earth is a matter of hazard.” 

Aircraft Not “Dangerous Instrumentality” 

When one considers that the U. S. aerial mail has flown daily for over a year 
from New York to San Francisco and from San Francisco to New York without 
a serious accident, it can hardly be held that aircraft are a dangerous instru¬ 
mentality, or their descent “a matter of hazard.” 

Because of the analogy between navigation of the air and navigation of the 
seas, some writers have suggested that the rules of admiralty law, rather than 
the common law rules should apply. However, in the case of Crazvford Brothers 
No. 2—215 Federal 269, decided in 1914, the United States District Court for the 
Western District of Washington held that aircraft were not the subject of admi¬ 
ralty jurisdiction. The laws thus far enacted by the various state legislatures have 
not been uniform in fixing the rule of liability but the Uniform Aviation Act as 
approved by the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws provides: 

“Section 5. (Damage on land). The owner of every aircraft which 
is operated over the lands or waters of this State is absolutely liable for 
injuries to persons or property on the land or water beneath, caused by 
the ascent, descent or flight of the aircraft, or the dropping or falling of any 
object therefrom, whether such owner was negligent or not, unless the 
injury is caused in whole or in part by the negligence of the person 
injured, or of the owner or bailee of the property injured. If the aircraft 
is leased at the time of the injury to person or property, both owner and 
lessee shall be liable and they may be sued jointly or either or both of 
them may be sued separately. An aeronaut who is not the owner or lessee 
shall be liable only for the consequences of his own negligence. The in¬ 
jured person, shall have a lien on the aircraft causing the injury to the 
extent of the damage caused by the aircraft or objects falling from it.” 

In support of this high degree of liability its proponents rely upon the diffi- 

27 


culty of proving negligence and the inability of the injured party to protect him¬ 
self or his property. On the other hand it should be remembered that “hard cases 
make bad law.” When a cyclone blows the roof of a house across the street and 
through a storekeeper’s window the public naturally sympathizes with the owner of 
the store and the owner of the house, but there is no reason why the owner of the 
house should respond in damages to the storekeeper and the law does not require 
him to do so. Likewise, if an aircraft should be wrecked by -a cyclone there is 
no reason why persons on the ground who sustained damage by reason thereof 
should be given a cause of action either against the owner or the operator of 
the aircraft. This rule should therefore be modified at least to the extent of 
recognizing the principle of vis major. It has already been pointed out that air¬ 
craft have developed beyond the point where they can be classed with wild beasts 
and highly dangerous instrumentalities and difficulty may be encountered in sus¬ 
taining this legislative rule of liability. 

Authors and legislators give little, if any, attention to the liability of an 
aeronaut for injuries to his passengers or to shippers for property damaged in 
transit. In all probability this is due to the “fireside” conception of justice that 
one who risks his person or his property in the air assumes the risk and is there¬ 
fore not entitled to compensation for loss, or else because the doctrine which is 
applied to common carriers is regarded as sufficiently stringent to meet the require¬ 
ments of justice. In many instances passengers and shippers have been required 
to sign contracts limiting or waiving their claims for damages in the event of 
injury to themselves or their property. These contracts in all probability will 
ultimately be construed by the courts according to the same principles which they 
have applied to similar contracts involving transportation by land. More than 
likely the same rules of law will be applied to common carriers by air as are 
applied to other common carriers. These rules are not uniform but the various 
underlying principles are well settled in our several states. It must be borne in 
mind that the term common carrier itself has been construed differently in different 
states and that every carrier for hire is not necessarily a common carrier, and 
therefore not subject to the particular liabilities imposed upon them. 

Compensation For Injuries 

Compensation for injuries suffered by employes will undoubtedly be covered 
by amendments to the Workmen’s Compensation Acts in the various states where 
these acts are not already broad enough in their scope to cover individuals em¬ 
ployed in aerial transportation. One case involving injury to an employe of an 
aviation company has already been passed upon by the court of appeals of New 
York state, In re Reinhardt, 232 N. Y. 115. The question there involved was not 
whether the employes’ remedy was at common law, or under the New York statute, 
but whether his remedy was under the Federal Employer Liability Act because 
the injury was sustained while the claimant was repairing a hydroplane moored 
upon navigable waters of the United States. The State Court held the Federal 
Act applied and denied recovery in the State Courts. This case will again be 
referred to in discussing the power of governmental agencies to regulate aeronautics. 

The Illinois Workmen’s Compensation Act applies to carriage by land or 
water but makes no reference to carriage by air. It also applies to the distribution 
of any commodity by horse-drawn or motor-driven vehicle, but it could hardly 
be held that this was broad enough to cover an aeronautical enterprise. The 
question as to whether employes of an aviation company are covered by the Illinois 
Act has been raised but, at the present time, remains undetermined. In states 
which have no Workmen’s Compensation Act, or where the scope of such act is 
not broad enough to cover employes of an aeronautical enterprise, the ordinary 
common law rules relating to assumption of risk and the fellow servant doctrine 
will be applied, and it will be only a question as to whether the claimant will have 
to prove negligence on the part of the employer, or if the courts will presume 
negligence because of the difficulty of proof and the inability in some cases of 
the courts to comprehend what constitutes negligence in relation to aeronautics. 

While this last statement may be regarded as casting reflection upon the Bench, 
it is not so intended. In many instances facts which constitute negligence in 
ordinary cases are, as a matter of fact, factors of safety in aeronautics. The most 

28 


tarniliar example is that of speech Operating railroad trains, street cars, automo¬ 
biles and otner vehicles at a high rate of speed has always been evidence of 
negligence on the part of the operator, and operating at a low rate of speed has 
oeen accepted as evidence of due care. In aerial navigation speed is a factor of 
safety. One of the standing jokes of the Air Service during the war had to 
do with the fond parent who cautioned a cadet learning to flv, to “fly low and 
slow. ’ 

What Constitutes Care 

These same problems are involved in determining the liability of one aeronaut 
due care and what constitutes negligence, and until aerial navigation is more a 
matter of common experience, it will be difficult for courts to determine what 
constitutes negligence and what risk can be regarded as having been assumed. 

These same problems are involved in determining the liability of one aeronaut 
to another. Collisions in the air have not been numerous, and unless attributable 
to weather conditions such as fog or the negligence of one or both pilots in stunt¬ 
ing, it is almost impossible to determine with any degree of certainty which pilot 
was at fault. In this connection it might be worth while to call attention to data 
on aircraft accidents prepared by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of 
America and published in the Aircraft year book for 1922, pp. 37-41, both inclusive. 
This table accounts for 114 accidents and classifies their causes as follows: 


“Due to— 

Piloting . 49 

Poor Fields or Lack of Them..’.. 20 

Lack of Weather Data. 4 

Lack of Route Data or Flying Limitations. 10 

Inspection 

Faulty Craft . 4 

Faulty Engine . 9 

Faculty Accessory . 9 

Stunting . 29 

Collision in Air . 2 

Carelessness on Field . 8 

Unknown . 8 


In examining the remarks in connection with the table it will be noted that 
some of the accidents were attributable to more than one cause, which accounts 
for the fact that the total under the recapitulation of causes exceeds the number of 
accidents by thirty-eight. There were only two collisions in the air and both of 
these occurred in connection with stunting. 

Governmental Regulation of Aeronautics 

Governmental regulation of aeronautics presents a most interesting legal 
problem. As heretofore pointed out state legislatures have already enacted some 
regulatory legislation; in California, Connecticut, Kansas, Oregon and Maine the 
acts are fairly comprehensive, while in New Jersey, Minnesota, Indiana, Montana, 
North Carolina and Utah the scope of the legislation is very limited, dealing only 
with such subjects as the use of aeroplanes in hunting, Montana Laws, 1921, 
chapter 238, North Carolina Laws of 1919, chapter 38, and the acquisition of 
aviation fields by condemnation or otherwise, Indiana Laws of 1920, chapter 165, 
Utah Laws of 1921, chapter 38. New Jersey and Minnesota prohibit flying in 
certain localities at altitudes of less than two thousand feet. 

Numerous city councils acting under the police power have adopted ordinances 
regulating aerial navigation in the air space within their respective city limits. 
Their validity is yet to be tested in the courts. In the meantime Congress has 
failed to pass any law on this important subject, notwithstanding the fact that sev¬ 
eral bills have been introduced at each session during the last four years and the 
aeronautical interests have exerted their influence to obtain some federal legisla- 


29 













tion on the subject. So far the controversy has hinged upon the extent of the 
Federal Government’s power to regulate aeronautics in all of the space over the 
United States, its territories and the territorial waters adjacent thereto. For a 
time there was some question as to whether or not sovereignty of the air over any 
country in time of peace would be recognized by international law. But the develop¬ 
ment and importance of aeronautics during the World War made necessary the 
recognition : 

“(1) of the principle of the full and absolute sovereignty of each state 
over the air above its territory and territorial waters, carrying with it the 
right of exclusion of foreign aircraft; (2) of the right of each state to 
impose its jurisdiction over the air above its territory and territorial 
waters” 

as adopted by the International Air Navigation Convention, which was held in 
conjunction with the Peace Conference. 

This declaration of principle applies only to International Law and is not 
controlling as between the several states and the federal government. This is 
particularly true since the United States has not adopted the air convention because 
of its relation to the treaty of Versailles. There can be little doubt, however, but 
that the principle of sovereignty of the air will be recognized by the United States 
Supreme Court once that question is presented to it for determination. This being 
true, the control of the air space over the United States is vested in the respective 
states, except insofar as the federal government may exercise control over it under 
the powers delegated to it by the states in the constitution and amendments thereto. 

Bar Association Urges Law 

As previously noted, a constitutional amendment vesting in the federal govern¬ 
ment power to regulate the use for air travel of all space over the United States 
has been suggested. However, the American Bar Association at its meeting in 
August, 1922, adopted a recommendation 

“That until Congress has enacted legislation fostering and regulating 
aeronautics and until the Supreme Court has determined the extent of 
federal control over aeronautics no further consideration be given to the 
question of a constitutional amendment to vest exclusive jurisdiction over 
aeronautics in the federal government.” 

The bills which have been introduced in Congress have been drafted under one 
or more of the following clauses of the federal constitution: The interstate 
commerce clause; the treaty making clause; the admiralty clause; the post roads 
clause; the national defense clause and the clause granting jurisdiction over 
limited areas acquired or purchased from the various states. 

While all of these clauses may be helpful in reaching the conclusion that Con¬ 
gress may assume for all practical purposes exclusive jurisdiction over the regula¬ 
tion of aeronautics, undoubtedly the greatest power comes from the grant con¬ 
tained in the interstate commerce clause and the treaty making clause. To exer¬ 
cise the latter requires the ratification of a treaty with some foreign country 
which would make necessary federal legislation on the subject of intrastate aerial 
navigation. While such a treaty will undoubtedly be ratified in the course of time, 
there is no such treaty now in existence and therefore the most logical procedure 
would be the exercise of the power under the interstate commerce clause. 

Congress Empowered to Regulate 

In the Shreveport case, 234 United States, page 342, the United States Supreme 
Court in discussing the power under the interstate commerce clause said: 

“Congress is empowered to regulate,—that is, to provide the law for 
the government of interstate commerce; to enact ‘all appropriate legisla¬ 
tion’ for its ‘protection and advancement’ (The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 

557, 564, 19 L. ed. 999, 1001) ; to adopt measures ‘to promote its growth 
and insure its safety’ (Mobile County v. Kimball, 102 U. S. 691, 696, 697, 

26 L. ed. 238-240) ; ‘to foster, protect, control, and restrain’ (Second 
Employers’ Liability Cases (Mondou v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co. 


30 


223 U. S. 1, 47, 53, 54, 56 L. ed. 327, 345, 347, 348, 38 L. R. A. (N. S.) 

44, 32 Sup. Ct. Rep. 169, 1 N. C. C. A. 875). Its authority, extending to 
these interstate carriers as instruments of interstate commerce, necessarily 
embraces the right to control their operations in all matters having such 
a close and substantial relation to interstate traffic that the control is essen¬ 
tial or appropriate to the security of that traffic, to the efficiency of the 
interstate service, and to the maintenance of conditions under which inter¬ 
state commerce may be conducted upon fair terms and without molestation 
or hindrance. As it is competent for Congress to legislate to these ends, 
unquestionably it may seek their attainment by requiring that the agencies 
of interstate commerce shall not be used in such manner as to cripple, 
retard, or destroy it. The fact that carriers are instruments of intrastate 
commerce, as well as of the interstate commerce, does not derogate from 
the complete and paramount authority of Congress over the latter, or 
preclude the Federal power from being exerted to prevent the intrastate 
operations of such carriers from being made a means of injury to that 
which has been confined to Federal care. Wherever the interstate and 
intrastate transactions of carriers are so related that the government of the 
one involves the control of the other, it is Congress, and not the state, 
that is entitled to prescribe (352) the final and dominant rule, for other¬ 
wise Congress would be denied the exercise of its constitutional authority, 
and the state, and not the nation, would be supreme within the national 
field.” 

In the case of R. R. Com. of Wis. v. C. B. & Q. R. R. Co. U. S. Adv. Ops. 
1921-22, 236, the court sustained an order of the Interstate Commerce Commis¬ 
sion which was much wider than the order in the Shreveport case. Chief Justice 
Taft in the course of his opinion said: 

“Commerce is a unit and does not regard state lines, and while, under 
the Constitution, interstate and intrastate commerce are ordinarily sub¬ 
ject to regulation by different sovereignties, yet when they are so mingled 
together with the supreme authority, the nation, can not exercise complete, 
effective control over interstate commerce without incidental regulation of 
intrastate commerce, such incidental regulation is not an invasion of state 
authority 

Uniform Regulation Indispensable 

Uniform regulation of aeronautics is admittedly not only desirable but abso¬ 
lutely indispensable to the effective development of aerial transportation as an in¬ 
strumentality of interstate commerce. It therefore seems reasonable to believe 
that legislation for the regulation of aeronautics by the Federal Government would 
be sustained as constitutional, notwithstanding the fact that its scope would be 
broad enough to regulate both inter- and intrastate aerial navigation. 

An aircraft which is so constructed as to be used both in the air and upon 
the water, presents a conflict of jurisdiction between the courts of admiralty and 
the courts of law. This conflict, however, is one which can and should be settled 
by legislative enactment. The draft of the uniform state aviation law contains 
the following declaration: 

“A hydroairplane while at rest on water and while being operated on 
or immediately above water should be governed by the rules regarding 
water navigation; while being operated through the air other than imme¬ 
diately above the water, it shall be treated as an aircraft.” 

While this dual jurisdiction may give rise to some confusion, it would seem 
to be the most logical solution of this particular problem. 

It has also been suggested that Congress in the exercise of its power to regu¬ 
late interstate and foreign commerce could require corporations engaging in inter¬ 
state or foreign aerial navigation to be incorporated under a federal incorporation 
law. If this suggested legislation is enacted, Congress could confer upon the 
federal courts exclusive jurisdiction of suits brought by or against such corpora¬ 
tions. 


31 


It would therefore appear that the regulation of aerial navigation will ulti¬ 
mately be either largely or exclusively vested in the federal government and any 
authority which may remain in the several states will be so limited in its extent 
that its exercise will not seriously interfere with Ihe development of aerial 
aeronautics. 



Commercial Air Transport—The Next Step 


Business of the Nation Demands Speed—Air Transport Challenges 
Attention of Commerce and Industry as New Factor in Our 
National Problem—Co-ordination and Utilization of All Means 
of Transport, Rail, Road, Water and Air. 


By J. Rowland Bibbins, Manager, Department of Transportation and Communi¬ 
cations, United States Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D. C. 


Air transport, like highway transport, has come, within very recent time, to 
have a practical meaning which now challenges American business. America is a 
speed-loving nation. 

It is a land of magnificent distances—a long-haul country which has staked 
its prosperity and future on high speed, low cost transportation. The welfare of 
the great interior depends upon this—an interior of immense production and pop¬ 
ulation, but several times farther from seaboard than any other country of great 
production and population. Conversely, America’s position in the competitive mar¬ 
kets of the world will ultimately revolve about her ability to develop long-haul 
transport at minimum cost, while maintaining the American standard for her 
people. 

Time is a very large factor in business—most important to transport of people, 
commercial documents and high value freight; least important in commodity move¬ 
ment where quantity rather than speed becomes the essence of low transport cost. 
In our transportation development the insistent note has been speed, more speed: 
first, waterways, then stage lines, single-track railroads, and now four-track roads 
with extra fare preferential train movements; likewise city horse cars, then trol¬ 
leys and high-speed subways; horse-drawn vehicles, then the automobiles and 
motor truck. This is all significant, because there is a business reason. 

The Cost Factor 

The American nation is now spending for transportation about $100 per capita 
per year, far more than the whole pre-war national debt, and nearly half the 
present national debt. If all business transactions could be done at one place 
and time there would be no need for long-haul transport. But during the year, 
commerce requires a movement of 50,000,000,000 passenger miles and 500,000,- 
000,000 ton miles on the railroads alone, neglecting entirely the enormous move¬ 
ment, yet uncharted, of 10,500,000 motor vehicles. 

The Time Factor 

Outside of the actual transport cost, a great and unknown cost is the time 
element in the transaction of business, not only of personnel, but of mail, specie, 
securities, bank clearings, and urgent merchandise, as well as less valuable and urgent 
freight and express. Every added hour or even minute in transit adds to the cost 
of doing business, in personnel, interest carrying charges, additional equipment 
needed in transport, and additional working capital assets of business. This con¬ 
ception is not visionary, it is an actuality, and has given rise to various methods 
and agencies for expediting business, for which service additional rates are paid, 
and paid gladly. Here is an open field—and a fair field—for air transport. 

But each transport system has its limitations, first as ta the highway it uses, 
and second as to the equipment it has to provide. Only the seven seas and the air 
above are the open roads to commerce, subject to practically no capacity restrictions. 
There will always be slow freights and fast freights as passenger trains on the 
railroads. But provision for both has required billions of extra capital for a four 
track road bed. The same restriction is coming to be felt acutely in highways. 
Water and air are still the open roads. But they, too, must be subject to certain 
regulations for the good of all. They, too, must have well organized and equipped 
terminals. They, too, must dispatch, control and safeguard their “floating equipment 


33 







according to modern methods, to fulfill the exacting demands of commerce and 
industry. 

American business is organized upon the fundamental principle of private 
enterprise and it looks at commercial aeronautics from this viewpoint, at the same 
time recognizing fully the inestimable value of the development work accomplished 
by the Government. But it also demands that a stable foundation be laid for the 
future so that air transport will gradually take its place in the National Trans¬ 
portation plan as the prime agency for speed and expedition. And it extends the 
restraining hand for the one and only purpose of taking full advantage of past 
experience with other transport systems, thus avoiding the hazards, the huge 
dissipation of capital, discouragement of effort, bad planning of air lines and 
terminals, which misfortunes would be certain to result from a development un¬ 
guided and uncontrolled. 

This whole subject has enlisted the attention of no less a national body than 
the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, a federation of over 1,400 prin¬ 
cipal trade and commerce organizations, with an underlying membership of over 
700,000 businessmen throughout the country. Upon suggestion by resolution of 
one of its organization members, the National Aircraft Underwriters Association, 
the Transportation Department of the Chamber, after some investigation, was 
authorized to lend its support in the initial steps which are clearly necessary to 
secure both present and ultimate stability in the air transport industry, and to 
secure the continued sympathy of business men in its undertakings. 

Some Important Principles 

The principles developed in this study are as simple as they seem important. 

1— The immediate support of basic national legislation on aeronautics pro¬ 

viding for appropriate regulatory procedure. 

2— Such legislation to be broadly conceived, in the nature of an enabling 

act providing for the adoption, administration, and improvement from 
time to time of an Aeronautical Code under proper Government 
authorization created by the Act. 

3— Adequate facilities zuithin the Department of Commerce for promoting 

the regulation and development of commercial air transport operations in 
interstate and foreign commerce. 

A — Intra-state legislation and operations to conform as nearly as possible 
to the basic Federal legislation, or at least unified State action. 

5— Encouragement of zmdespread public support of this essential aeronaut¬ 
ical legislation. 

These principles received the sanction of the Advisory Committee of the 
Department of Transportation and Communication numbering among its members 
prominent railroad, motor, utility, shipping, banking, and terminal executives and 
consulting engineers, and were duly presented to members of Congress concerned 
in aeronautics. 

Why Is Legislation Needed? 

Aviation is a national American institution, in origin and principle, and should 
continue as such. In practical development commercial aeronautics is now suffer¬ 
ing from the results of war-time specialization and over production. Through lack 
of legal and economic status it is not receiving the practical encouragement it de¬ 
serves, not only as a most powerful arm of quick national defense, but also as the 
new transport agency of great potentiality, especially when properly developed and 
articulated with present transport systems. Recent hard experience in hurriedly 
training an adequate flying corps emphasizes the great need of a sufficient reserve 
available for any national emergency. Without practical encouragement, commer- 
cil aeronautics in America will continue to lag behind foreign development to such 
an extent as to constitute a menace to future security and to delay fatally that essen¬ 
tial commercial development in which America should rightly stand first. 

The aeronautic industry is the only important case on record of a new industry 
asking to be regulated from the inception of its operations. We have the Transpor¬ 
tation Act, Public Utility Acts, Merchant Marine Act, and 47 varieties of State 


34 


Highway Acts, all of which have been developed under public pressure for the 
regulation of these transport agencies. The aeronautic industry, however, invites 
it, realizing that the success of air transport is bound up with, and vitally depends 
upon the promulgation of an efficient code of rules and regulations under which 
flying would be rendered easier and safer, responsibility between carriers and traffic 
would be definitely fixed, and the conditions under which national and international 
business must be transacted would be known to all parties concerned. Such an aerial 
code is an absolute necessity for commercial aviation. 

The United States is the only large western nation participating in the European 
war which has not such a code. Canada has a complete code patterned after, btut 
modified from the much used International Code brought down from the League 
of Nations. At the present United States flyers are only permitted in Canada 
through international courtesy. However, a U. S. code is nearing a practicable 
stage, and only awaits enabling legislation. Australia and European nations have 
had their regulative laws long in force. We stand alone in solitary confinement as 
it were. 

The Second Step—Ground Organization 

It is unnecessary to relate the aggregate performance of the aeronautic indus¬ 
try to date, important as it is, the extraordinary performance of the air mail under 
exceedingly discouraging conditions, nor to contrast or draw feverish comparisons 
with the achievement of Europe under the practical encouragement of government 
subsidy. What is more important now is the next practical step, looking beyond 
the establishment of a practical and sympathetic system of regulation. It is sug¬ 
gested, that the air transport industry direct its attention with the utmost care 
and concerted effort on that great essential organization, which for lack of a better 
term we may call Ground Organisation. 

1— Co-operation of districts and localities in providing properly equipped 

air harbors and intermediary air lanes, under unified federal control. 

2— Co-operation of the Government along certain lines of national aero- 

logic and radio broadcasting service. 

3— Adequate motor collection and delivery system between air ports and 

the business centers. 

4— Temporary continuance of the valuable pioneer development work of the 

Air Mail until substantial realization of above essentials permits of 

private enterprise. 

There seems little or no possibility of adequate and promnt development 
without co-ordinating the several states, dozens of cities, and the Federal services, 
in providing chains of landing fields or air ports, both municipal and emergency, 
with suitable repair and supply facilities, also adequate demarkation day and night 
of cross-country air ways between these fields with radio signalling and control 
equipment between land and ship or plane for dispatching and especially to permit 
night and storm flying. 

Further, it mav be found desirable to lay out air ways with special reference 
to contacts with highways and railways for the purpose of quick inter-field move¬ 
ment for supplies, assistance, etc. This may help to develop a useful relay or expe¬ 
diting speed service along the transcontinentl rail routes. 

Importance of Terminals 

Unified terminal development and administration is of special significance. 
We are planning a high speed transportation system superimposed upon the exist¬ 
ing rail, water and highway systems. Each, as in the past, will require terminal 
facilities of continually expanding capacity. There will always be the gateways, 
the “neck of the bottle,” through which all traffic must pass. And here past expe¬ 
rience must be taken advantage of, for it is recognized today that the terminal 
burden in investment, operation, delay and cost of transit represents a very large 
proportion of the transportation cost from point of origin to ultimate point of 
destination. 

I do not think it an exaggeration to say that railroad investment other than 
main line represents perhaps one-half of the total investment today, or $10,000,000,000. 


35 


And we have estimated roughly a total investment in marine terminal facilities 
(other than railroad tidewater facilities, included above) of at least $1,000,000,000. 
No man knows how much of this tremendous investment could have been avoided 
by starting right, with a reasonable unification of effort and co-operative organiza¬ 
tion such as now have come about in the 50-odd railroad belt line companies 
in the United States, as exemplified in the Railroad Terminal Association of St. 
Louis, and the plan now under way for New York industrial district; but we can 
draw from this past experience and see to it that in this great development that 
is to come, terminal duplication with its superburden of cost and inconvenience to 
the traveling public and traffic, should be reduced to the practical minimum. In 
fact, while it is a far look ahead, this may possibly become the key to maximum 
future success of air transport. 

There is no profit in speculating what ultimate relation will be established 
and proved desirable between air transport and other transport agencies. We are 
learning rapidly, however, through the tragic experience of war, and bald necessity 
today, that our National Transportation Plant is in essence a single great problem, 
and not an unrelated series of separate problems. And experience is rapidly being 
accumulated which will enable us to determine in the not distant future just what 
special field and radius of operation as well as economies will develop the best that 
lies in each form of transportation—rail, motor, trolley, canal, and ultimately air. 
To give you a closing snapshot of what the future may hold in store, the following 
facts are of interest. 

What of the Future 

The Transportation Department has estimated roughly the total present-day 
investment in our national transportation system. It is $50,000,000,000, exceeding 
manufactures, mining, and all others except agriculture. This investment has 
doubled within about ten years, and previously within about fifteen years. Of 
course, the recent great activity has been in highway and automobile transport. 
What of the future? 

The basic rail tonnage per capita has risen steadily to 25 tons in 1920, hardly 
without interruption. Railroad investment per ton carried has reduced through 
economic methods to practically a stable level of the last decade. Our population 
and tonnage demand will increase by substantially known amounts. During the 
next twenty years this combination of events will demand at least $25,000,000,000 
new capital for transportation in all forms. 

In the meantime probably half of the whole transportation plant representing 
the depreciable elements, will pass through the renewal cycle (a polite term for the 
scrap heap)—$25,000,000,000 more. A total of $50,000,000,000 in transportation 
funds will thus have to be raised and spent somehow. This is twice our national debt 
today. Looking backward as well as forward, the real potentiality of a new speed 
service appears in its true light, for every additional increment in speed of transit 
will release just so much existing capital for non-speed service. I am no prophet, 
but the facts are irresistible. 

* n " * *» n 




36 


The Status of Aircraft Insurance 


Underwriters Welcome Elimination of Exhibition Flier—In Absence 
of Federal Regulation, Temporary Insurance Registration Estab¬ 
lished. 


By Edmund Ely, Aetna Life Insurance Co., New York, and President National 

Aircraft Underwriters Association. 


The history of Aircraft Insurance up to the present time is merely a record 
of preparation. Insurance against one or more aerial hazards has been available 
from the time of the earliest practicable airplanes but, as the war provided a greater 
stimulus to their manufacture and use, from that time dates the real development 
of Aircraft Insurance. At one time or another since the war no less than twelve 
companies have been actively engaged in underwriting aircraft risks. During that 
period any two of the companies could easily have handled all of the business 
that was available, and I believe it has been the aim of the companies to gain a 
knowledge of the business and to build up experience which will serve as a guide 
when the increased use of airplanes demands increased insurance facilities. 

The extension of insurance into every field of economic activity has been in 
response to business demands and this development has heretofore been principally 
along the lines of offering protection against known perils to existing property and 
well established operations. It is seldom that underwriters have had the present 
opportunity of witnessing the creation of an entirely new field for insurance. In 
this case our interest is manifestly in developing the field. The primary interest 
of all concerned in this development is the safety of flight, and this can be accom¬ 
plished generally only through federal supervision. So much has been said about 
the urgent necessity for federal regulation and control that it is unlikely that more 
words can be of any avail in obtaining action and yet it may be of some interest 
to present'the insurance viewpoint. 

Basic Law Is Needed 

Two kinds of legislative action are required of the Government in dealing with 
aviation: (1) providing a basic law fixing the status of aircraft and setting forth 
the rights, duties and limitations of owners and operators; (2) providing the out¬ 
line for general regulations which shall apply uniformly within federal jurisdiction 
and creating the machinery for the enforcement of such control. 

The insurance business feels this lack perhaps more keenly than any collateral 
line of the aircraft industry. At the present time if an insurance company assumes 
the liability of an operator for damage to persons or property it has not only to 
estimate the probability of the event resulting in such damage, but it is also at a 
loss to know what legal principles and jurisdiction will apply in fixing the degree 
of liability. Such experience as the companies have gathered has shown con¬ 
clusively that the hazards of aircraft operation are largely controllable, and the 
absence of suitable and uniform supervision is without question responsible for 
many accidents. It is hardly necessary to point out the decided effect such super¬ 
vision would have on the insurance situation. Properly regulated airdromes, well- 
marked air lanes, adequate meteorological service and the establishment of centers 
for radio communication cannot fail to have a marked effect on the safety of flight. 
If such regulation and control were existent at the present time there is no doubt 
that insurance could be undertaken at materially lower rates with a reasonable 
expectation of the result being favorable. 

Insurance Register of Pilots. 

In order to fulfill their own requirements and pending the enactment of such 
legislation, the insurance companies have done what they^ could to supply the 
deficiency. At the request of the National Aircraft Underwriters’ Association the 
organization known as Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. of Chicago, Illinois, which 

37 





was established by the Fire Insurance companies, undertook a comprehensive 
program to secure safety of flight. The plan contemplates three essential features: 

1— A register of pilots; 

2— A register of ships; 

3— Certificates of air-worthiness. 

The register of pilots involves the following: 

1— An application form filled out by the pilot seeking registration, giving full 

data as to his training and subsequent flying experience. 

2— A physician’s statement of surgical and medical examination. 

3— A certificate of registration to applicants found qualified. 

A —A system of bulletins to Association members announcing the filing 
of applications, action thereon and cancellation of registry. 

5— A board of inquiry to consider crashes. 

6— Publication of rules of the air covering the pilot’s conduct and respon¬ 

sibilities. 

The certificate of registration expires after twelve months, and previously if 
the pilot is inactive in flying for 120 days. It may be cancelled or suspended at any 
time for cause and is automatically suspended upon inquiry following a crash 
involving insurance. 

Based on International Convention 

The plan is based upon the provisions of the Convention Relating to Inter¬ 
national Air Navigation agreed upon, subject to certain reservations, by the repre¬ 
sentatives of the allied and associated powers serving on the International Com¬ 
mission on Aerial Navigation, which was constituted as a sub-commission of the 
Peace Conference. It follows very closely the air regulations of the Canadian 
Air Board. Approximately 25 pilots are now registered; in addition to these, 
registration has been refused to 4 others and one registration has been cancelled. 

A further important move toward putting private and commercial aircraft in 
the United States on a definite footing was announced by Underwriters Labora¬ 
tories on July 1st, 1921, when the aircraft register became operative. Previously 
no organization in this country had attempted to define aircraft uses, to classify 
aircraft or to provide a register whereby formal identification could be secured. 
The members of the National Aircraft Underwriters’ Association at that time 
undertook to require registration of all aircraft as a prerequisite for insurance. 
In the register aircraft are defined according to ownership or use, as state, commer¬ 
cial or private. State aircraft includes military aircraft and aircraft employed 
exclusively in state service such as postal, customs and police. Commercial aircraft 
includes aircraft used for the purpose of any profession, trade or business when 
one or more persons (in addition to the pilot and other necessary members of 
the crew) or freight are carried for hire or reward. Private aircraft includes all 
aircraft not state or commercial. 

State aircraft, being Government owned or operated, will not be subject to 
registration. The application for registration filed by the commercial or private 
aircraft owner requires all essential information regarding the ship, which informa¬ 
tion as abstracted in the register may have an important bearing upon many 
phases of insurance. 

Registration Similar to Lloyds 

The identification or marking of commercial or private aircraft should be of 
increasing importance to various interests. The plan is similar in essentials to that 
of the Canadian Air Board, Lloyds Aviation register and the International Air¬ 
craft Convention of the Peace Conference. Aircraft intended for flying in the inter¬ 
national service will show the capital letter “N” preceding the registration mark 
as a symbol of American ownership. Aircraft not flying abroad need show the 
registration mark only. This mark will consist of alphabetical symbols shown in 
capital letters, thus “ABCD” or “BMUL,” etc. These registration marks preceded 
by a dash will follow the nationality mark “N” for ships flying across the national 
boundaries. A bar underlining the registration mark will identify aircraft regis- 

38 


tered for private use. These registration and nationality marks will appear once 
on each side of the fuselage or nacelle and also once on the upper and lower 
wing surface of airplanes. These letters will be of sufficient size to permit identi¬ 
fication while in flight and at considerable distances or elevations from the ob¬ 
server. The registration mark will serve as a “call sign” of the aircraft in all 
radio or other signalling. A total of thirty aircraft are now registered, of which 
eight are private. One registered ship crashed and its registry was cancelled. 

The air-worthiness inspection program of Underwriters Laboratories was an- 
nouncd early this spring. As the name will indicate the program involves detailed 
inspection of the ship and the certification of its safe condition for flying. To date 
four ships have been inspected for air-worthiness and certified. Several certificates 
are held in suspense pending maintenance, improvement, and essential repair work, 
and the certificate of air-worthiness has been refused in other instances. 

While this work has been undertaken by Underwriters Laboratories at the 
request of the insurance companies and is designed primarily to enforce suitable 
conditions on ships and pilots submitted for insurance, nevertheless the usefulness 
of the program undertaken is by no means limited to insurance purposes. It will 
be conceded by all that every crash of a ship or accident occurring thereto is 
exceedingly poor advertising for the aircraft industry. The one end toward which 
all should be striving is to impress on the public that passengers by airplane or 
cargoes shipped by airplane are practically certain to arrive at their destination 
without injury. From the figures given above it will be evident that the aircraft 
industry, owners and operators, has not supported this movement to insure safety of 
flight in such a way as to be conclusive evidence that this thought is foremost in 
their minds. As an instance of the value of this service, a transcontinental air tour 
was undertaken some time ago in a machine which was in such poor condition 
that Major Schroeder of Underwriters Laboratories had declined to certify to the 
air-worthiness of the ship shortly before the tour was begun. The ship crashed, 
fortunately without loss of life. Had the aircraft industry energetically sup¬ 
ported this inspection program it would then have transpired either that the pro¬ 
posed tour would have been abandoned or a certified ship selected, and the unde¬ 
sirable advertising given by the public announcement of the crash could then 
have been avoided. 

Most Accidents Preventable 

Statistics of insurance companies are necessarily limited. We have, however, 
sufficient data to lead us to the conclusion that by far the largest number of 
losses is avoidable. Our figures show that 76 per cent of the accidents are due to 
collision of the plane with the earth or some other object and that of these collisions 
64.4 per cent were avoidable. In making this division we have given operators the 
benefit of every reasonable doubt and no clearer indication can be had of the 
necessity for regulation of flying. 

Among other welcome recent developments is the gradual elimination of the 
itinerant flyer who provided thrills at county fairs and did much to increase the 
accident record. It is no longer necessary to familiarize the public with the sight 
of an airplane and whatever useful purpose such exhibition flights may have served 
in the past, the unnecessary risks undertaken and the consequent accidents retard 
rather than forward public interest in aviation as a factor in commercial life. 

The problems of aircraft insurance are those of aviation itself. The insurance 
companies and their affiliated organizations have made considerable investments in 
research, engineering, safety work and the accumulation of sufficient experience to 
handle the business competently. The existing forms of insurance are adequate 
to provide indemnity to aircraft owners and operators and the insurance market 
offers sufficient facilities so that no legitimate commercial aviation enterprise need 
lack insurance protection. 


39 


Fundamentals of Commercial Flying—Review of 

Developments in Europe 


America Does Not Lag in Aviation—Subsidies Not Needed So Much 
As Public Support—More Attention Needed For Detail 

in Operation. 

By Prof. E. P. Warner, of Cambridge, Mass., Head of Department of Aero¬ 
nautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 


The last three years have seen much theorizing and speculation on the 
possibility of adapting airplanes and airships to commercial service on a large 
scale, and many optimistic estimates have been based on insufficient study of 
the obstacles to be met and have then proven imposible to realize in practice. 
It is well that there are a few services which are actually running and which 
form laboratories to which we can turn for answers to our questions as to 
what the possibilities of the future may be and what direction we should take 
in seeking the realization of those possibilities, and it is unfortunate that the 
results obtained with those experimental services have not been even more 
extensively discussed and analyzed than has been the case. 

The major operations now furnishing on a relatively small scale data 
later to be applied to the commercial use of aircraft on a large scale are those 
of the United States Air Mail and of the various European air lines. Since 
my recent experience has been with the European undertakings I shall base 
this discussion particularly on their experience and present practices, but it 
would be unjust to turn to a consideration of aeronautical enterprise across 
the sea without allusion to the fallacious nature of the common belief that 
America lags far behind the Eastern hemisphere in all aspects of commercial 
flying As a matter of fact, the airplane mileage of the Air Mail during the last 
year for which statistics are available was almost exactly equal to the total 
distance flown commercially in England and France combined, while the safety 
record made during since the summer of 1921 on the New York-San Francisco 
route has never been approached anywhere else in the world. 

Notwithstanding all this, however, the very fact that the Air Mail is 
operated by the government and that it uses entirely rebuilt army flying equip¬ 
ment makes it in some ways unsatisfactory as a basis of calculation, and its 
operations should be studied in conjunction with those of private enterprises. 

Functions of Privately-Operated Air Service 

The functions of a privately-operated air service are threefold. It must 
serve the public, as individuals, it must serve the public collectively in con¬ 
tributing to the defensive strength and so to the security, as well as to the 
economic greatness, of the state, and it must afford a reasonable return to 
investors. Either of the first two functions alone is sufficient to justify the 
existence of commercial flying, but the third must be fulfilled or the service 
cannot live under private control. Since the paying of a profit to the investors 
is thus the one sine qua non of operation, and since it is obvious that an air 
line cannot possibly show a profit unless it serves some useful public purpose, 
the economic condition of the air transport companies is a logical starting- 
point for any discussion of their operations. 

It is often stated, usually without concrete evidence to back the state¬ 
ment, that commercial flying depends solely on governmental subsidy and that 
without the subsidy it would inevitably perish. This is unfortunately true of 
some undertakings, although not by any means of all, and in the degree in 
which it is true it of course represents the existence of a belief that the impor¬ 
tance of commercial flying to the state is so great that the citizens should 
be willing to bear taxes for its maintenance as a contribution to the common 
good. The more interesting cases, however, are those in which the economic 


40 






service to the individual has become so clearly apparent and has elicited so 
much support from private users as to render the operating companies nearly 
or quite independent of direct subsidization. 

An analysis of the subsidy question should begin with France, as the sub¬ 
sidy law there is the oldest and the most generous in the world. The total 
allotment for aeronautical subsidies in the French budget of 1921 was $3,500,000 
in round figures at present exchange rates, while Great Britain devoted only 
$900,000 to the same purpose. The German grant was about $200,000, but 
monetary comparisons involving the mark are meaningless in the present state 
of German finances. The recent report on the aeronautical section of the 
French budget for 1922, submitted to the Chamber of Deputies by a finan¬ 
cial commission, chosen to give the subject detailed and expert examination, 
has gone into the matter of the subsidy and the finances of the companies 
operating under it with some thoroughness. It has shown that the total 
receipts under the subsidy during the first six months of 1921 were 13,858,310 
francs, while the same companies received for the carriage of passengers and 
express during the same period a total of 1,577,434 francs, the ratio between 
the two figures being 8.8 to 1. During the whole of the preceding year the 
ratio had been only 5.04 to 1. In the case of one company, that operating from 
Toulouse to Morocco, the ratio was 17.5 to 1, and the subsidy received in that 
instance did not include any grant specifically destined for the purchase of 
new machines. 

Notwithstanding the seemingly generous proportions of the government 
grant, however, that particular company ran at a slight financial loss during 
the first half of 1921, the ordinary receipts from traffic amounting to less than 
four percent of the operating expenses. Several other large companies showed 
a loss, and the total receipts from all sources of all the French companies 
together were in excess of expenses by only 19 per cent. During 1920 they 
had actually recorded a deficit of 44 per cent of the operating expenses. Certain 
operating officials on the French lines have complained to me that the sub¬ 
sidy is quite insufficient and that it will be necessary for the government to 
make a definite advance guarantee of a fixed return on invested capital before 
air travel can go ahead as it should. This viewpoint is a serious handicap to 
the establishment of commercial flying as a self-supporting link in the trans¬ 
portation system. It would appear better to concentrate on consolidating the 
gains already made and increasing the efficiency and usefulness to the public 
of the lines already established, rather than to seek always for increased govern¬ 
ment support. 

Subsidy Proves Disappointing 

Superficially at least these figures are very discouraging. If a subsidy 
aggregating 41,000,000 francs ($3,500,000) in a year is sufficient to keep com¬ 
mercial flying in any better state than they imply the situation would appear 
almost hopeless. It is not by any means hopeless, however, for the trouble 
lies not in insufficient subsidy but in insufficient traffic, and unless the remedy 
is applied at the proper point, by building up the traffic, it would prove more 
economical in the long run to abandon the attempt at commercial operation 
and spend the subsidy money directly on military airplanes and pilots than to 
attempt to continue the operation of a great number of lines with subsidies 
large enough to make them independent of the search for business. The line to 
Morocco, already cited, carried during the same six months’ period under con¬ 
sideration an average cargo of .05 of a paying passenger, 38 lbs. of express, 
and 6 lbs. of mail per trip, a total average pay load of 54 lbs. In 1920 the 

figure was 58 lbs. No transportation enterprise of any sort could run suc¬ 

cessfully with such public support as that, and it can only be kept operating 
by a subsidy sufficient to meet all the expenses, the receipts from the traffic 
being negligible. The government must simply pay the bills, quite as under 
stramht government operation. That method may be justifiable in the case 
of an experimental service of particular interest, such as the one to Morocco, 

a line which also serves the government by carrying to the French colony 


41 


numerous officials who pay no fare and who, therefore, do not appear in the 
traffic figures given above, but it cannot be used in many instances. 

Some lines, thanks to a more favorable location, have attracted real public 
support. One cross-channel line, that between Lympne and Ostend, is now 
running without a subsidy, and there seems to be no doubt, from the operating 
records that they have made, that certain of the companies operating between 
London and Paris could get along and at least cover expenses without direct 
governmental assistance if they were relieved of the necessity of meeting a 
subsidized competition. More paying passengers travel by air between London 
and Paris every week during the summer than travel between France and 
Morocco in two years, and the traffic is great enough to keep the commercial 
operating efficiency, represented by the ratio of pay load carried to pay load 
capacity of the airplane, up to a reasonably high figure. During the summer of 
1921 the average load of a cross-Channel airplane was 3.56 passengers and 
roughly 30 lbs, of express, and the average number of passengers for the 
British lines alone was 5.97, a pay load, with allowance for the normal amount 
of baggage, of nearly 1,200 lbs. per machine. 

It All Rests on Public Support 

Since there is such disparity between the performances of different lines, 
and since it is impossible to plan to build a commercial structure on subsidies 
alone, the crux of the whole matter is seen to lie in public support. All other 
ideas must be made secondary to the stimulation of public interest and 
patronage. 

There are many reasons why the public has been slow in responding to 
the opportunity to travel by air. The principal ones are the cost, the sup¬ 
posed danger, the unreliability, the insufficient saving of time, and the dis¬ 
comforts of travel by air. All of these real or supposed disadvantages are off¬ 
set by corresponding gains through the use of the airplane, but it is well to 
consider the drawbacks first. 

The cost is not a serious item in most cases. Although travel by airplane 
is more expensive than by train, the cost of air transport is not enough dif¬ 
ferent from that of first-class European railway travel for it to be a deciding- 
factor for the well-to-do. Services are being operated regularly by French 
companies at 8c. per passenger mile, and the history of three years of opera¬ 
tion in Europe indicates that air lines can be run profitably at a rate of from 
12c. to 15c. per passenger mile and without subsidy if the traffic to fill the 
machines comes forward at that price. 

Present operating costs can be reduced either by improvement in equip¬ 
ment or by increasing the ratio of pay load carried to possible capacity or 
by improving the efficiency with which existing equipment is operated. The 
second of these possibilities is the major point under discussion in this paper, 
but the third should also receive some attention. As an illustration of what 
can be done in the way of continuous and efficient utilization of standard 
equipment the record made by the Daimler airways last June is of great in¬ 
terest. During that month the Daimler Company made 84 trips between Lon¬ 
don and Paris with only one machine in service. The total flying time of the 
airplane during the month was nearly 200 hours, and on one occasion four 
trips a day were made for five days without a break. Engines were changed 
and all repairs were made during the night. At the end of the month the 
airplane was certified in perfect condition by officials of the Air Ministry, and 
it had apparently deteriorated no more than it might have done if it had been 
sitting in the hangar. This is real commercial transport, and shows what 
can be done with proper equipment carefully maintained. As a contrast it 
may be mentioned that during the same month another company having about 
60 machines in service flew them a total distance only less than twice as great 
than that of the single airplane just mentioned. 


42 


Danger Not So Great As Supposed 

The danger of flying is by no means so great as is popularly assumed. The 
average accident rate on European lines runs very close to one fatality for every 
400,000 passenger miles but some lines have done much better than that and at 
least one company has operated for a distance of 650,000 airplane miles with¬ 
out the loss of a passenger. Nevertheless the danger is greater than it should 
be, and the situation cannot be considered satisfactory even yet. 

Accidents do not happen without reason and they can all be prevented if 
vigilance is used and if the organization is sufficiently thorough. The air mail 
in this country, operating regardless of weather conditions, has shown in the 
past year what can be done by minute and unwearing attention to maintenance. 
If no chances are taken and if the methods used by the air mail are applied to 
commercial operation everywhere it should be possible to reduce the accident 
rate to one-fifth of its present value. It is impossible, however, to hope for a 
good record for commercial flying as a whole without some measures of 
government regulation. 

During the past year it has been my duty to examine a number of air¬ 
planes, some of which were applying for registration in Massachusetts 
and a few of them have been flying in a condition shocking beyond descrip¬ 
tion. Flying boats have been kept afloat for weeks with the paint chipped 

off, leaving bare patches on the hull, and with no grease or protective coat¬ 
ing of any sort on the wires. Machines have come up to be examined for 
registration with all the control wires caked thick with rust and with strands 
broken in most of them and with safety wires missing from many of the 

turnbuckles. So long as it is possible for such conditions to exist, the acci¬ 

dent rate will be higher than it should and such conditions will exist at least 
in some parts of the country until the federal government takes action to 
terminate them. 

Regularity of service, like safety, is largely a matter of attention to 
detail. There is no royal road. We do not need a revolution in design and 
some great and sudden improvement in commercial airplanes nearly so 
much as we need attention to the minutiae of operation. The regularity 
of the service is very good at the present time, but it is not yet perfect, and 
even an occasional lapse may do a great deal of harm. The man who wants 
to get from place to place in a hurry is generally extremely insistent on ar¬ 
riving at his destination at a scheduled time and he would rather sacrifice a 
little in the time of travel than take even the slightest chance of missing his 
appointment altogether. The effect which uncertainty of service has on 
travel is illustrated by the fact that many people who will travel from Havre 
to Paris by air would not think of risking that method on the return trip 
where a delay would mean missing a trans-Atlantic steamer. At the present 
time a company which puts through 90% of its advertised trips without exces¬ 
sive delay is considered to be doing extremely well. In my own experience 
during the past summer, of the five air journeys of varying length which I 
undertook only one was completed within half an hour of the scheduled 
time of arrival, and only two within two hours. Of the other three, one was 
postponed a day and then finished two hours behind schedule on the second 
day, while another was never finished at all. The desire to fly in all sorts 
of weather in order to make a reliability record must not be allowed to 
place safety in jeopardy but short of that no effort should be spared to 
carry the flights out in accordance with the original plan. The airplane will 
not be satisfactory as a vehicle of travel for the ordinary business man 
until 39 flights out of every 40 scheduled go through without serious delay. 

Most Passengers American 

Up to the present time, for a variety of reasons, the business man is 
not using the airplane as much as might be hoped. An official of one of 
the London-Paris lines informed me that more than 40% of the present 
traffic was made up of American tourists and I heard a similar story in 

43 




many other quarters. A French engineer explained to me "It is our belief 
that Americans have thoroughly acquired the habit of traveling by air.” My 
own experience would certainly indicate that the statistics just cited do not 
overstate the case, for more than 85% of the passengers with whom I 
traveled were American tourists. 

Continuous and efficient utilization of flying equipment does not inter¬ 
fere with safety or regularity. The machine which made the record of 84 
cross-channel trips in one month, already mentioned, had only one forced 
landing and that was due to weather. With careful and regular inspection 
between trips nine flying hours per day per machine appears neither im¬ 
possible nor hazardous. 

The next objection that is frequently raised against the air services as 
now carried out is on the ground of insufficient saving of time to make their use 
worth-while. The loss of time is chargeable in part to the distance from the cities 
to their air ports, in part to delays in starting trips. The first difficulty cannot 
well be overcome in most cities, and the routes selected for exploitation must 
be long enough so that the saving of time over older methods of travel will 
make up for the time lost in getting to and from the termini. The second 
difficulty lies within the provisions of the operating officials to remedy. It is 
altogether too common on some lines to see a machine brought out of the 
hangar a few minutes before the time to start the trip, no attention being given 
to it until the scheduled starting time, after which it sometimes takes an hour 
to get the engine going properly. The officials in charge of maintenance should 
know that the engine’s condition is as perfect as it can be long before the time 
has come for the passengers to get on board. Another occasional and irritating- 
cause of delay is found in waiting for connections and for additional passen¬ 
gers. An airplane should run on a schedule like any other common carrier, and 
the delaying of the start by fifteen minutes because an additional passenger 
telephones that he is just about to start out from the city should be unthink¬ 
able. 

The time required to go from most of the European airports to the centers 
of the cities which they serve ranges between 20 minutes and an hour. Under 
these conditions air transport saves little time except on journeys over 300 miles 
in length or on those on which bodies of water or one or more international 
boundaries have to be crossed or where the existing transport facilities are 
for some reason abnormally bad. As long as it is hopeless to secure airports 
close to the heart of the city in most cases, although that should be done 
wherever possible, the next best solution seems to be to place them close 
beside railroad or electric interurban stations on suburban lines, arranging for 
special stops if necessary and timing the airplane schedules to connect with 
trains or cars. This would only be feasible on a reasonably large scale, but 
where fields are 15 miles or more from the center of the city something must be 
done to eliminate the automobile tour now constituting an unavoidable annex 
of the air journey. 

Question of Comfort Important 

The question of comfort of the passengers is a matter of roominess, ven¬ 
tilation and silence. Very few machines now offend badly in respect of ventila¬ 
tion and ample space in the cabin is available in those of large size. To secure 
satisfactory cabin accommodations on a two- or three-seater is a much more 
difficult problem. The noisiness of the airplane engine, however, constitutes 
an ever-present difficulty, much greater in imoortance than has generally 
been realized. It is difficult for an experienced pilot or aeronautical engineer 
to e-et the viewpoint of a passenger who has never flown, and the designer is 
prone to think too much of efficiencv and too little of those factors which 
attract or repel repeated patronae-e. I have talked with a considerable num¬ 
ber of mv fellow passengers on the European lines, most of whom had never 
flown before and a considerable number of whom apparentlv had no desire to 
flv a"a ; n. and in nearlv every case where the passengers declared that “once 
was enough” their antipathy could be traced to the noise, which renders con- 

44 


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* ( < 


versation absolutely impossible during the journey in most machines and 
which leaves some of the inexperienced travelers partially deaf for an hour 01 - 
more after finishing the trip. There are a few cases in which designers of 
commercial aircraft have given attention to this question of silence and have 
secured very good results, but much more is needed. 

Silence and comfort can be most easily secured with relatively large ma¬ 
chines. One of the great advantages of the airplane is that the unit involved 
is so small that even a light traffic makes it possible to run trips at short inter¬ 
vals, and the airplane thus scores over other means of transportation where 
speed connotes large units necessarily operating at longer intervals. Between 
Boston and New York, for example, there are only two limited trains each 
day, but the number of passengers carried by one of those trains would suffice 
to supply full load to an eight-passenger airplane every fifteen minutes through¬ 
out the day. This inherent advantage of small units and frequent operation 
must not be sacrificed, but it is also dangerous to make the units too small, 
^nd it is best to use a machine carrying at least eight or ten passengers. 
Further increase in size beyond that point can come as the traffic demands it. 

The question of single versus twin engines is a much vexed one. I per¬ 
sonally favor the single-engined machine as against the twin arrangement. 
The two-engined types are much liked by the traveling public, who feel increased 
confidence when they can see two engines running. I believe that we shall 
have to adopt airplanes carrying at least three engines for commercial work in 
the future. The time when the step to the multiple-engine arrangement inde¬ 
pendent of the breakdown of any single unit of the power plant can be made 
must, like most other advances, be dependent upon the rate at which the public 
comes to support air lines. 

What Steps Must Be Taken 

Having listed the main defects of commercial operation at the present time 
and having to some extent considered the cures together with the ills, it appears 
that the principal requirements, considered particularly from the American 
point of view, are: 

(1) Government regulation and government assistance in the organiza¬ 
tion of airways. This is absolutely essential, and it is useless to talk of any 
real commercial operation except over the water until Congress has acted. 

(2) More landing fields near the centers of the cities which they serve. 

(3) More careful attention to maintenance. The Air Mail should be taken 
. as a standard to follow in this respect. 

(4) More efficient operation. Every airplane should be kept in service 
as nearly continuous as possible. Time spent in the hangar is a dead loss. 

(5) Stimulation of public interest by circulation of the facts about flying 
and particularly about its safety. It may be a council of perfection, but more 
business outlook and less sensationalism in newspaper despatches on aeronautics 
is needed as much as any one thing if the public is to regard the airplane as 
having brought info reality a new form of transportation and not merely a 
new series of acrobatic stunts. 

(6) Improved design. In the case of the engines this means greater life 
and reliability. In the case of the airplane it means primarily greater attention 
to the wants of the passenger and more careful study of his point of view. 

Question of Commercial Design 

The desjgn of commercial airplanes is undoubtedly open to some improve¬ 
ment but we should avoid the idea that there is anything mysterious about 
it or that there is some magic in the word “commercial.” In the last three 
years in America we have seen a series of airplanes attract, at least temporarily, 
the greatest enthusiasm and we have heard the day of true commercial flying 
heralded with the advent of each new type. As a matter of fact, the difference 
between commercial and military machine in their possible performance is 
much less than has often been supposed, and the most important difference 


45 


resides in the construction and volumetric capacity of the fuselage. An air¬ 
plane carrying nine pounds per. square foot can take off and fly safely, 
although not with a large reserve of power, with from 18 to 20 pounds per 
horsepower. This is equivalent to a commercial load of from five to six 
pounds per horsepower, or approximately one passenger for every 30 to 35 
horsepower. That performance can be realized with cantilever monoplanes, 
with monoplanes which are not cantilever, or with biplanes braced with wire 
in the most old-fashioned way. There are many types which are operating suc¬ 
cessfully in Europe today, and no one of them is showing any tremendous in¬ 
herent advantage over the rest. We have sought too often in the past to find 
the successful commercial aircraft through a miracle, through casting away 
entire the knowledge and experience gained in four years of military design, 
and we have given too little attention to those minor details which must be 
studied with the utmost care if success is to be gained. 

I have spoken so far almost entirely with reference to that phase of com¬ 
mercial operation which deals with the carriage of passengers. There is one 
serious drawback to passenger carrying from the point of view of the business 
man, and that is the extent of the liability claims in case of a crash. A single 
bad accident with verdicts such as might be expected from past experience with 
American courts and juries would be enough to wipe out the profits of years of 
operation. In Europe the operating companies all require the passenger to 
agree to a contract whereby he assumes all risk of injury to himself, whether 
through his own negligence, negligence of the company’s servants, defects in 
equipment, or acts of God. American legal opinion is agreed that no such stipu¬ 
lations by a common carrier would be supported by the courts here. It is 
therefore natural that other types of traffic not involving the liability hazard 
should be sought, and of course the most obvious is the carriage of express. 
The express business is a very promising one, but only if it is run in conjunction 
with express companies which have the facilities for collection and distribution, 
thus relieving the company operating the aircraft of this responsibility. Ex¬ 
press traffic was ardently sought in Europe during the first two years of com¬ 
mercial flying, but it has recently become less and less popular among the air 
lines and one or two of the largest ones are refusing it altogether, having 
found that they were involving themselves in the obligation to make special 
automobile deliveries covering 20 or 30 miles with half a dozen tiny parcels. 
That task should be undertaken by those who are already equipped for it and 
who have no other responsibilities than the handling of express matter on the 
ground. 

Summarizing once more in bringing the paper to a close, it may be said 
that air transport has shown itself worthy and that it is succeeding, and will 
succeed, where it is run on the same sound business principles on which any 
other transportation undertaking would have to be conducted. Given some 
governmental sympathy of the sort outlined in an earlier section of the paper 
and some attention to the other fundamental requirements there listed, there 
is no reason why the carriage of passengers and express by air should not be 
undertaken on a large scale in America in the near future, and that without 
the necessity of any subsidy. 


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